Gone are those days when you had to go through a hectic process to pay your bills in malls or restaurants. You are no longer required to waste your time in finding the right card in your wallet as Apple Pay enables you to make frictionless credit card payments on iOS— simply, make all your payments with a single touch. The iPhone is soon going to become the only device you’ll need to start paying for anything.
Currently many top U.S. banks are participating in Apple’s new endeavor to make the payment process effortless. But a million dollar question is, “Is Apple Pay supported by small businesses?” So far we have read a lot about Apple Pay in the news and major retailers are supporting it, as well as many companies are working on adding support for Apple Pay to its popular payment system. This would help iPhone users use Apple Pay at their nearby retail shops.
So how does it work?
Apple Pay is a 100% contactless payment that does not require user to open any app or even wake a display. All thanks to NFC! Apple’s latest iPhone 6 and 6 iPhone Plus devices come with the Near Field Communication antenna that enables users to make payment by holding an iPhone near the contactless reader with a finger on Touch ID. It’s as simple as it sounds. As soon as the payment is made successfully, a subtle vibration and beep will let you know about it so that a user does not need not to look at the screen to check payment status.
The user can also pay with Apply Pay to buy something online.
Image Source: Apple.com
To use Apple Pay for online payments, all you need to do is add card details either using an iSight camera or simply typing it in manually.
Open the Settings app, and tap on Passbook & Apple Pay > Add Credit or Debit Card
The Passbook stores your credit and debit cards together with tickets, boarding passes, coupons, and more.
Image Source: Apple.com
It’s more secure than ever!
Since you do not hand over your actual credit/debit card to the merchant, no data (card number or identity) is visible to the merchant. In fact, Apple does not know users’ credit card numbers. Instead, the process involves assigning a unique, encrypted Device Account Number in the Secure Element, a dedicated chip in the iPhone. In case user’s iPhone is ever stolen or lost, he can easily wipe out all information from the iCloud.
Ready to go Wallet Free?
Maybe it is very early to say that you need not to carry your credit or debit cards. At least, not at this point of time! Apple Pay is not yet supported by many of the retailers out there, including most supermarkets, gas stations, and so on. However, more and more retailers are adding Apple Pay support and this is going to help the platform spread faster.
