Apple Pay finally 'coming soon' to Germany

Apple Pay is at last "coming soon" to Germany, according to the company's website, though it has less than two months to fulfill a 2018 launch date it promised earlier in the year.

The news can also be seen on the website of HypoVereinsbank, one of several banks planning support the platform. According to Apple, some other participating card issuers will include Boon, Bunq, ComDirect, Edenred, Fidor, Hanseatic Bank, N26, and O2 Banking. American Express, Mastercard, and Visa cards should be compatible.

Some of the better-known retailers that will accept Apple Pay are Aldi, Galeria Kaufhof, H&M, Lidl, MediaMarkt, Saturn, Shell, and Zara. In Berlin, BVG will let U- and S-Bahn riders pay for passes.

Germany is continental Europe's biggest economy, which has made the absence of Apple Pay there conspicuous. Apple and banks have been mired in talks for well over a year, presumably in an attempt to sort out transaction fees. Apple takes a fractional cut from each Apple Pay transaction, eating into a bank's revenues on a large enough scale.

Apple Pay is rumored to be coming to another European market, Belgium, sometime later this month.

In announcing its September quarter results Apple revealed that Apple Pay transactions tripled year-over-year through a combination of more regions and compatible vendors.

11 Comments

brianb08 2 comments · 16 Years

About 6 years ago

Maybe it’s already well known that you can use Apple Pay already in Germany with a credit card issued from another country that supports it. I’ve been doing this for about a year at places like Galeria Kaufhof, REWE, DM and yes, even for BVG. You just need to set the phone / watch region to someplace like Sweden or US to set it up.

caladanian 380 comments · 10 Years

brianb08 said:

Maybe it’s already well known that you can use Apple Pay already in Germany with a credit card issued from another country that supports it. I’ve been doing this for about a year at places like Galeria Kaufhof, REWE, DM and yes, even for BVG. You just need to set the phone / watch region to someplace like Sweden or US to set it up.

What are the consequences of setting a region for a phone? ...I found out that I can download Apple news app when I set the region to the US, but the app vanishes when I set the region back to Norway (in my case)... :/

Curious if my German comdirect credit card will work soon with Apple Pay in my Norwegian phone. :))

Btw: I would love if Apple could get rid of all the regions and stores and would be able to make a one-world-phone. Wishful thinking because of the legal situation but still...

arthurba 146 comments · 16 Years

Without the ‘savings banks’ (Sparkasse) this is a bit tokenistic. Germans don’t really use credit cards, and most Germans use a local savings bank. I think Apple Pay has a lot to offer Germany in this way - most other easy payment methods are very much tied to MasterCard/EuroCard or Visa - Germans should appreciate the security of Apple Pay and the ability to use your own money, not credit. But I think Apple haven’t done enough work on communication here.

philboogie 7669 comments · 15 Years

arthurba said:

Without the ‘savings banks’ (Sparkasse) this is a bit tokenistic. Germans don’t really use credit cards, and most Germans use a local savings bank. I think Apple Pay has a lot to offer Germany in this way - most other easy payment methods are very much tied to MasterCard/EuroCard or Visa - Germans should appreciate the security of Apple Pay and the ability to use your own money, not credit. But I think Apple haven’t done enough work on communication here.

But why should people bother to use Apple Pay? In Europe most people simply use PIN with their bankcard, which isn't a credit card. Fully accustomed in using contactless payment for quite a few years now, I don't see people change their payment habit for something that doesn't bring much new to the table.