Tipping point for Apple Pay as majority of UK tills accept limitless payments

Apple Pay
Apple Pay launched in the UK in 2015 Credit: Reuters

The majority of Apple Pay tills in the UK can now accept mobile payments above £30, bringing the tech giant's vision of replacing the wallet a step closer.

Jennifer Bailey, the head of Apple’s payments business, said over half of contactless payment terminals in the UK are now able to take Apple Pay transactions of any value. Most card readers had previously been restricted to £30, the default upper limit for contactless card transactions.

The upgrades, which Ms Bailey said applied to hundreds of thousands of terminals, means shoppers in many places can make payments of any value without taking their wallet with them. When Apple Pay was launched in the UK in 2015, only a handful of retailers accepted “limitless” transactions.

Higher-value payments are seen as a key advantage for Apple over contactless cards as it seeks to grow its payments business. Some reports have suggested mobile payments getting off to a slow start, with consumers sometimes unaware of the technology or struggling to see the benefits over card payments.

Contactless card payments are limited to £30 to prevent fraud, since they do not require shoppers to enter a PIN.

Apple Pay transactions, which are made by holding an iPhone or Apple Watch against a card reader, are approved using the iPhone fingerprint scanner or watch’s biometric sensors. The extra security allows Apple Pay to make payments of any value, but retailers have had to embark on a programme of terminal upgrades to support them.

“We think the majority of the contactless terminals [in the UK] are now limitless,” Ms Bailey said. Retailers now accepting the higher-value payments include supermarkets such as Waitrose and Sainsbury's and restaurants including Pizza Express and Nando's.

Waitrose
Supermarkets including Waitrose now take higher-value transactions Credit: PA

The company says Apple Pay transactions in the UK have grown by 300pc in the last year, with 23 banks now supporting the service. “Our momentum has been fantastic. We’re really excited about the progress,” Ms Bailey said.

Apple, which charges a transaction fee for payments made with the service, sees Apple Pay as one of the ways it can grow its services business, as other areas such as the iPhone and iPad slow. The service, which debuted in the US in 2014, has expanded to 16 countries after launching in Italy last week.

It competes against rival offerings from Google, which brought Android Pay to the UK last year, and Samsung, which unveiled its Samsung Pay service last week.

Ms Bailey hinted that Apple was working on new technology that would replace other parts of the wallet apart from credit cards.

“If you think about all the things in your wallet, we're thinking about all those things, we're probably actively working on most of them,” she said. “We’re starting with payments. Some are longer term, we see this as a long term journey rather than something we can solve in the next 12 months.”

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