Apple Pay comes to Canadian vending machines through PayRange app

Canadian iPhone owners should now be able to use Apple Pay at some vending machines, if indirectly by way of a third-party app, according to a Monday announcement.

People can use Apple Pay to fund the PayRange iOS app, which is being supported by members of the Canadian National Vending Alliance, the latter organization said. The app can only be used at machines equipped with a BluKey dongle, although operators can allegedly install the hardware in seconds.

A number of American vending machines already have direct support Apple Pay, such as some from Coca-Cola, an early Apple partner. Outside the U.S., however, Apple Pay support leans even more heavily towards retailers and restaurants.

Canada is still a relatively new frontier for Apple Pay, having only gained access to the platform in May. All of the country's major banks are now onboard, and merchant support should gradually increase.

10 Comments

ericthehalfbee said:

Why? There are already vending machines that support Apple Pay the "normal" way (that is, they have the equivalent of a POS terminal built into the machine).

Agreed. I can understand for existing vending machines which already use BluKey, but if you have to install something, why use specialized hardware and make it harder for customers when you can just use standard hardware?