Apple Pay goes live in the UK - but HSBC customers will have to wait
Apple Pay can be used anywhere where contactless payments are accepted, as well within apps such as Addison Lee, Just Eat and Topman
Apple Pay has gone live in the UK, with many of the major credit card companies enabling customers to pay using their iPhones, iPads or Apple Watches to make payments at over 250,000 shops - provided they don't spend more than £20.
Only users of the latest Apple products - the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch - can use Apple Pay wherever contactless payments are accepted.
However, using Apple Pay to make payments within apps can be made using the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, as well as the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus. Apple Pay is accepted in-app by Addison Lee, Just Eat, Lastminute.com and Topman, as well as several other well-known companies.
Global payments company Adyen said that many of its partners, including JD Sports, Takeaway.com and River Island, were keen to join the Apple Pay launch.
River Island CIO Doug Gardner said that the fashion chain regarded Apple Pay as a way to develop the company's relationship with its customers.
"Mobile is growing faster than most people would have predicted a couple of years ago, and with Apple Pay we see a great opportunity to deliver a seamless payment experience and build a deeper connection with some of our most valuable customers. So we're very excited to partner with Adyen to offer Apple Pay to our UK shoppers at launch," said Gardner.
"If you think about transaction fees for card-not-present transactions, which is obviously what one would do via a credit card on our website or existing apps, with Apple Pay, we overcome that. That could be financially very attractive for us as well," he said.
Apple emphasised that the payments would be secure. It suggested that Apple Pay is actually more secure than using a credit or debit card, where users' identities are visible.
"With Apple Pay, instead of using your actual credit and debit card numbers when you add a card, a unique device account number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the secure element - a dedicated chip in the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch - these numbers are never stored on Apple servers," the Cupertino-based company claimed.
"When you make a purchase, the device account number, along with a transaction-specific dynamic security code is used to process your payment. So your actual credit or debit card numbers are never shared by Apple with merchants or transmitted with payment," it continued.
The company added that if a user loses their device, they can use "Find My iPhone" to put their device in ‘lost mode', which would suspend Apple Pay, or they can remotely wipe their device. Alternatively they can stop the ability to make payments from credit and debit cards using iCloud.
Credit card company MasterCard said it was working with multiple banks, including HSBC, RBS/NatWest and Santander, to enable their customers to use their MasterCard credit or debit cards directly through Apple Pay.
However, while NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank, Nationwide and Santander are already offering Apple Pay as of today, HSBC told the BBC that it was planning to launch the service by the end of July. Halifax Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, TSB and Marks & Spencer will launch Apple Pay for their customers in the autumn.
Ian Hermon, mobile payments specialist at Thales e-Security, suggested that the launch would add further momentum in what he sees as "an already extensive contactless NFC terminal infrastructure in the UK".
"This will likely lead to an uptick in adoption of mobile payment technology and, consequently, Apple will find itself in a constant battle to balance user convenience with ensuring security is factored in from the start. This simply has to be a number-one priority if consumers are going to put their trust in mobile payments," he said.
"With that in mind, it is encouraging to see tokenisation at the heart of the security agenda, which will help issuers with payment channel separation and also protect the merchant in the event of a data breach," he added.