Apple Pay debuts in Poland with support for 8 banks

AppleInsider

As promised in May, Apple on Tuesday flipped the switch on Apple Pay in Poland with eight regional banks, introducing the digital payments standard to a market well accustomed to mobile payments.

Source: Think Apple

Apple updated its regional website to advertise availability of the new payment option. Though the page includes Polish text, graphical assets are pulled from Apple's U.S. Apple Pay webpage, suggesting region-specific photos featuring cards from local banks have yet to be produced.

At rollout, a total of eight financial institutions are providing support for the service, including BGZ BNP Paribas, Bank Zachodni WBK, Alior Bank, Raiffeisen Polbank, Nest Bank, mBank, Bank Pekao and Getin Bank. According to local Apple blog Think Apple, Poland's largest bank, PKO BP, and other smaller institutions are expected to integrate Apple Pay in September.

Beyond supporting banks, Apple's website fails to provide a breakdown of retail stores that accept the payments platform. The company typically gathers a short catalog of large vendors and popular regional chains in a bid to goose adoption, though such a list was not made immediately available for Poland.

Rumors of a Polish launch first surfaced in December, with reports at the time claiming a handful of banks had agreed to enter negotiations with Apple ahead of an expected go live date in March. In May, CEO Tim Cook during a quarterly earnings conference call teased a Polish debut, saying Apple Pay would soon expand operations to cover the country and its neighbors Norway and Ukraine.

Apple Pay launched in the U.S. in 2014 and has since expanded to a number of countries around the world, including major markets like Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Russia and the U.K. With today's availability, the product is available to iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac users in 23 territories.

Prior to Poland, Ukraine most recently gained access to Apple Pay in May, just over a month after the service went live in Brazil.

Norway is next on the list of expected rollouts, though a firm launch date has yet to be announced.

racerhomie3

Austria & Poland are the best European countries.

cancerman

Well thats alot more then here in sweden. We have three or four banks so far that support Apple Pay

michasam

cancerman said:

Well thats alot more then here in sweden. We have three or four banks so far that support Apple Pay

That's still a lot more than our zero Banks in Germany, that support it 

iwatchamacallit

I was using  Pay everywhere in Poland last summer. Apple doesn’t need to publish a list of merchants who support it because nearly everyone supports tap to pay in Poland. Never once was I unable to complete a transaction using  Pay. 

Rayz2016

iwatchamacallit said:

I was using  Pay everywhere in Poland last summer. Apple doesn’t need to publish a list of merchants who support it because nearly everyone supports tap to pay in Poland. Never once was I unable to complete a transaction using  Pay. 

Yup, it's just NFC after all.

But I think what they're talking about here is being able to add Polish bank cards to the Wallet, not using cards from other countries already in the Wallet.

mjtomlin

Rayz2016 said:

iwatchamacallit said:

I was using  Pay everywhere in Poland last summer. Apple doesn’t need to publish a list of merchants who support it because nearly everyone supports tap to pay in Poland. Never once was I unable to complete a transaction using  Pay. 

Yup, it's just NFC after all.

But I think what they're talking about here is being able to add Polish bank cards to the Wallet, not using cards from other countries already in the Wallet.

Agreed, but iwatchamacalit was referring to the following statement in the article...

Beyond supporting banks, Apple's website fails to provide a breakdown of retail stores that accept the payments platform. The company typically gathers a short catalog of large vendors and popular regional chains in a bid to goose adoption, though such a list was not made immediately available for Poland.

I think in most places around the world it has become a standard. Unfortunately, here in the U.S. support for "tap to pay" (Pay) is all over the place.

olivertwist

michasam said:

cancerman said:

Well thats alot more then here in sweden. We have three or four banks so far that support Apple Pay

That's still a lot more than our zero Banks in Germany, that support it 

Yet, Pay works pretty much everywhere in Germany and Austria as well. I stopped updating the list of retailers, restaurants, etc. that accept Pay a couple of years ago. Even the public toilets at the train stations accept Pay even for €0,60 entrance fee!

One thing I notice is any card readers that have bright red Sparkassen-Händlerservice stickers on them don't accept Pay after working fine for a couple of years. I contacted Sparkassen-Händlerservice to enquire about it, but nothing from them. Another reason to hate Sparkasse,the most vile of all banks in Germany!

laytech

And still no Apple pay provided by ConBank in Australia, Westpac or National as they continue to collude to protect profits for shareholders and restrict their customers from features that they want. Sigh! They sure know how to alienate their customers.

robertwalter

olivertwist said:

michasam said:

cancerman said:

Well thats alot more then here in sweden. We have three or four banks so far that support Apple Pay

That's still a lot more than our zero Banks in Germany, that support it 

Yet, Pay works pretty much everywhere in Germany and Austria as well. I stopped updating the list of retailers, restaurants, etc. that accept Pay a couple of years ago. Even the public toilets at the train stations accept Pay even for €0,60 entrance fee!

One thing I notice is any card readers that have bright red Sparkassen-Händlerservice stickers on them don't accept Pay after working fine for a couple of years. I contacted Sparkassen-Händlerservice to enquire about it, but nothing from them. Another reason to hate Sparkasse,the most vile of all banks in Germany!

Sparkasse will bleed clients and create new competitors by blocking tech initiatives that irs customers want. They will lose the most desirable customers, thilosr that can afford iPhones, and younger long term new customers,  first.