Apple Pay debuts in Norway for Santander and Nordea customers

AppleInsider

A day after Apple Pay went live in Poland, Apple on Wednesday activated its mobile payments service in Norway with initial support from Santander Consumer Finance and Nordea.

As usual, Apple updated regional Apple Pay web assets to announce and inform users of the newly available product. Like yesterday's Polish release, Apple's website currently lacks localized graphics and instead pulls images from the U.S. Apple Pay webpage.

At launch, Apple Pay Norway supports two financial institutions in Santander Consumer Finance and Nordea. Whether additional partnerships are being hammered out behind the scenes is unknown, though Santander is one of the largest banks in the region and should cover a significant portion of the populous.

Apple fails to provide users a list of local retail outlets that accept Apple Pay, noting only that iPhone and Apple Watch owners can conduct transactions at point of sale registers displaying either the Apple Pay logo or standard contactless payment symbol. Customers can also make Apple Pay purchases on the web through supported iOS and macOS devices.

Apple first announced future Apple Pay availability in Norway last month when CEO Tim Cook teased a forthcoming expansion that included Poland and Ukraine. The service went live in Poland on Tuesday and in the Ukraine in May.

Apple Pay launched domestically in 2014 through a handful of banks and integrations with major credit card companies. The product 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, Apple's fledgling payments service is available to iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac users in 24 territories.

[deleted user]

Germany......

macxpress

pakitt said:

Germany......

I wonder what the hold up is with Germany? 

adbe

I wish they'd hurry up and start turning on Apple Pay Cash outside of the US.  Having to resort to PayPal for overseas petty transfers is annoying.

soli

adbe said:

I wish they'd hurry up and start turning on Apple Pay Cash outside of the US.  Having to resort to PayPal for overseas petty transfers is annoying.

I expect it will be faster than the Apple Pay rollout because the infrastructure is already setup, but I suspect it will also be slower than people expect.

sendmcjak

It blows my simple mind that Apple Pay hasn't even arrived places yet... 

ascii

Isn't it the case that you can use Apple Pay anywhere as long as you use an Amex-issued Amex (as opposed to a bank issued one)?

soli

SendMcjak said:

It blows my simple mind that Apple Pay hasn't even arrived places yet... 

It might a simple solution on paper, but it requires a lot of work to implement. You have legal hurdles for each country, plus negotiations with each financial institution, and then the bank-side system that will verify a user's a card for a device, give it a randomized 16-digit token and encapsulate in a cryptogram that is stored on the user's device.

For example, HSBC is a multinational bank. They've had Apple Pay in the US for years and have added Apple Pay for other countries as soon as Apple offered it those countries, but there are still plenty of other countries with HSBC that don't yet support Apple Pay.

Personally, I think the rollout great. Do I want it to go faster? Sure, but I also want a lot of things that aren't necessarily realistic.

soli

ascii said:

Isn't it the case that you can use Apple Pay anywhere as long as you use an Amex-issued Amex (as opposed to a bank issued one)?

When you setup Apple Pay for a card on your iPhone, if it's accepted by your bank and verified by your device it should work anywhere that an NFC-based payment is accepted, regardless of whether it's an AMEX, VISA, or MC. It's why people in countries that still have no banks supporting Apple Pay have said they've been using Apple Pay in that country for years… they using a card from a country whose bank does support it.

edited June 2018

guiguihip

macxpress said:

pakitt said:

Germany......

I wonder what the hold up is with Germany? 

The hold up is the simple fact that Germany is too much of a cash based country. Not enough card transactions. Other countries are way ahead in this field. As a consequence, to Apple, those countries appear as more interesting places to implement Apple Pay.

ascii

Soli said:

ascii said:

Isn't it the case that you can use Apple Pay anywhere as long as you use an Amex-issued Amex (as opposed to a bank issued one)?

When you setup Apple Pay for a card on your iPhone, if it's accepted by your bank and verified by your device it should work anywhere that an NFC-based payment is accepted, regardless of whether it's an AMEX, VISA, or MC. It's why people in countries that still have no banks supporting Apple Pay have said they've been using Apple Pay in that country for years… they using a card from a country whose bank does support it.

Ok. But I think the difference between Amex and Visa/Mastercard is that Visa and Mastercard are only issued by banks, so the bank in question must support Apple Pay for it to work with that card. Whereas American Express is unique is that some of their cards are issued by banks and some are issued directly by American Express themselves, with American Express providing the credit line and no bank being involved.

I know that in Australia, before any local bank supported Apple Pay (they all do now) I was able to register my Amex-issued Amex on my iPhone and start using it (causing much cashier surprise).

soli

ascii said:

Soli said:

ascii said:

Isn't it the case that you can use Apple Pay anywhere as long as you use an Amex-issued Amex (as opposed to a bank issued one)?

When you setup Apple Pay for a card on your iPhone, if it's accepted by your bank and verified by your device it should work anywhere that an NFC-based payment is accepted, regardless of whether it's an AMEX, VISA, or MC. It's why people in countries that still have no banks supporting Apple Pay have said they've been using Apple Pay in that country for years… they using a card from a country whose bank does support it.

Ok. But I think the difference between Amex and Visa/Mastercard is that Visa and Mastercard are only issued by banks, so the bank in question must support Apple Pay for it to work with that card. Whereas American Express is unique is that some of their cards are issued by banks and some are issued directly by American Express themselves, with American Express providing the credit line and no bank being involved.

I know that in Australia, before any local bank supported Apple Pay (they all do now) I was able to register my Amex-issued Amex on my iPhone and start using it (causing much cashier surprise).

 AMEX is a multinational financial institution. For all intents and purposes it is a bank when it's the one that is issuing the card number, verifying the user's physical card and issuing a tokenized card number and cryptogram for that card on that device for Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.

edited June 2018

ascii

Soli said:

ascii said:

Soli said:

ascii said:

Isn't it the case that you can use Apple Pay anywhere as long as you use an Amex-issued Amex (as opposed to a bank issued one)?

When you setup Apple Pay for a card on your iPhone, if it's accepted by your bank and verified by your device it should work anywhere that an NFC-based payment is accepted, regardless of whether it's an AMEX, VISA, or MC. It's why people in countries that still have no banks supporting Apple Pay have said they've been using Apple Pay in that country for years… they using a card from a country whose bank does support it.

Ok. But I think the difference between Amex and Visa/Mastercard is that Visa and Mastercard are only issued by banks, so the bank in question must support Apple Pay for it to work with that card. Whereas American Express is unique is that some of their cards are issued by banks and some are issued directly by American Express themselves, with American Express providing the credit line and no bank being involved.

I know that in Australia, before any local bank supported Apple Pay (they all do now) I was able to register my Amex-issued Amex on my iPhone and start using it (causing much cashier surprise).

 AMEX is a multinational financial institution. For all intents and purposes it is a bank when it's the one that is issuing the card number, verifying the user's physical card and issuing a tokenized card number and cryptogram for that card on that device for Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.

Right, so I just wonder if Apple Pay is in some sense already global. For example the person above who wanted it in Germany, he doesn't have to wait for his local banks, just get an Amex-Amex and he is off to the races.

soli

ascii said:

Soli said:

ascii said:

Soli said:

ascii said:

Isn't it the case that you can use Apple Pay anywhere as long as you use an Amex-issued Amex (as opposed to a bank issued one)?

When you setup Apple Pay for a card on your iPhone, if it's accepted by your bank and verified by your device it should work anywhere that an NFC-based payment is accepted, regardless of whether it's an AMEX, VISA, or MC. It's why people in countries that still have no banks supporting Apple Pay have said they've been using Apple Pay in that country for years… they using a card from a country whose bank does support it.

Ok. But I think the difference between Amex and Visa/Mastercard is that Visa and Mastercard are only issued by banks, so the bank in question must support Apple Pay for it to work with that card. Whereas American Express is unique is that some of their cards are issued by banks and some are issued directly by American Express themselves, with American Express providing the credit line and no bank being involved.

I know that in Australia, before any local bank supported Apple Pay (they all do now) I was able to register my Amex-issued Amex on my iPhone and start using it (causing much cashier surprise).

 AMEX is a multinational financial institution. For all intents and purposes it is a bank when it's the one that is issuing the card number, verifying the user's physical card and issuing a tokenized card number and cryptogram for that card on that device for Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.

Right, so I just wonder if Apple Pay is in some sense already global. For example the person above who wanted it in Germany, he doesn't have to wait for his local banks, just get an Amex-Amex and he is off to the races.

It's global in the sense that any place that accepts NFC-based payments should accept *Pay if you've been able to authenticate a card onto a device. Remember that AMEX is headquartered in the US.

I wouldn't call it global if not all counties with the infrastructure, or major banks, or the majority of terminals (or ATMs) aren't accepting *Pay. Personally, I think we're still a couple years away from a tipping point in the US where I'll be able to leave all my cards behind and know that I can use my Watch for payments as needed. It's getting close, since even going to the farmer's market—where I expect to need cash for at least another decade—I can just hit an ATM using Apple Pay on my Watch.

It's pretty good for me now. Most of the places I frequent support *Pay, but there's still more retailers and awarenesses that needs to come before I feel that tipping point to leave my physical cards behind becomes a reality for my average day. It's why I've ordered those free ApplePay stickers from Apple which I'll give to retailers or put up myself so that user awareness can help grow this service I want to see be as common as any place that takes cards.

edited June 2018

melotron

DNB is the by far the biggest bank in Norway. They have declined a deal with Apple on Apple Pay. DNB developed their own solution called VIPPS, that lets you transfer money to your friends, pay in shops and now you can also pay your bills in this app.
VIPPS is now a separate company owned by several banks in Norway, and there is a lot of comments about the banks protecting VIPPS by not supporting Apple Pay.
A lot of DNB customers have turned to DNBs facebook page and are now demanding that the bank supports Apple Pay.

soli

melotron said:

DNB is the by far the biggest bank in Norway. They have declined a deal with Apple on Apple Pay. DNB developed their own solution called VIPPS, that lets you transfer money to your friends, pay in shops and now you can also pay your bills in this app.
VIPPS is now a separate company owned by several banks in Norway, and there is a lot of comments about the banks protecting VIPPS by not supporting Apple Pay.
A lot of DNB customers have turned to DNBs facebook page and are now demanding that the bank supports Apple Pay.

I'd say it's like what Walmart is trying to do in the US and CVS is now trying to do with their creatively named CVS Pay, which is a barcode based solution where you give them your CC/Debit card to store in their mobile app, but it's more analogous with the MCX service that CVS and many others used previously, which was an abject failure.

I assume being available to all major banks in Norway means that it has chances of being more successful than MCX in the US, but I still think that Apple Pay (Android Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.) will still win out in the end.