It was reported a few days back that Apple Pay could finally go live in the United Kingdom on July 14th and indeed it has, the company’s payment service is now available to users across the pond. It has been launched in the UK some nine months after Apple Pay originally went live in the United States, but you know what they say, better late than never.
Apple Pay is a contactless payments service which is supported by more than 250,000 outlets already across the country, major supermarket chains such as Lidl and Waitrose are onboard and so are restaurant chains like Nando’s and Wagamama.
There’s an added advantage for folks who live in London because the service can be used to make payments on Transport for London’s rail and bus network.
Currently there’s a £20 upper limit on most purchases made through Apple Pay but it’s expected that this cap will be raised to £30 at some point later this year.
Some of the country’s biggest banks already support Apple Pay such as Natwest, Nationwide and Santander. Barclays is finally onboard as well after lengthy negotiations on the matter so all of the UK’s four major banks now support Apple Pay.
This is the first country that the payment service has been expanded to outside of the U.S., it’s next stop is going to be Canada.