ANZ has become the second credit card issuer in Australia to offer Apple Pay to its customers, and the first bank in Australia to offer the feature on its cards.
Previously, the contactless payment feature on iPhones was only available to people with credit and charge cards directly issued by American Express – which did not extend to the “companion” American Express cards issued by the Big Four banks, including ANZ.
ANZ has announced though that it will now offer Apple Pay to its five million customers in Australia. From 28th April, ANZ customers in Australia are now able to use Apple Pay to make quick and secure purchases wherever contactless payments are accepted with either an ANZ Visa debit or credit card or an ANZ American Express credit card.
According to ANZ, users will receive the same rewards and benefits when using Apple Pay as they currently do when using their credit or debit card.
Which cards support Pay?
Apple Pay is supported on the vast majority of credit cards issued by ANZ with a few exceptions – MasterCard products and Corporate cards. This includes the ANZ Low Rate Platinum and ANZ Low Rate MasterCard which are the only MasterCard products currently issued by ANZ to individuals for personal use. The remainder of ANZ’s personal credit cards can be used with Apple Pay including:
ANZ Balance Visa,
ANZ Frequent Flyer Visa and American Express cards,
ANZ Rewards Visa and American Express cards,
ANZ First, and
ANZ Platinum.
In an Australian first, ANZ’s Visa Debit cards can also be used with Apple Pay, meaning that it is not necessary to have a credit card – funds will simply come out of the linked bank account, in the same way that they do when Visa Debit cards are used for contactless payments or when pressing ‘credit’.
“I’m proud we’re the first major Australian bank to offer Apple Pay and we are confident the convenience, security and privacy will be well received by our customers,” said ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott.
More than 60% of all card transactions in Australia are now contactless and accepted across in excess of 70% contactless merchant payment terminals.
“With the high adoption rates of contactless payments in Australia, our customers will be world leaders in their ability to use their mobiles to make the vast bulk of essential payments,” Mr Elliott said.
Compare ANZ credit cards here
Which phones support Apple Pay?
Apple pay was first made available on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus about a month after the phones were released in September 2014, but was only available in partnership with participating card issuers in the United Sates. Since then, Apple has released a number of devices that support contactless payments. The full list of devices includes:
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus,
iPhone 6s and 6s Plus,
iPhone SE, and
the Apple Watch (which must be paired with an iPhone 5 or a later model).
How to use Apple Pay?
According to Apple, Apple Pay is accepted at any retailer that currently accepts contactless payments (e.g. ‘payWave’ on Visa cards, or American Express ‘ExpressPay’). This means that Apple Pay should work in all of the same places that you currently use your credit or debit card by ‘tapping’ to pay, which is usually for transactions under $100. Using Apple Pay with an American Express card however, will not work those cards are not already accepted by the retailer.
Using Apple Pay is as simple as holding your iPhone near the contactless payment terminal and placing your finger on the ‘Touch ID’ fingerprint reader to authorise the transaction. Apple Pay can also be activated by double-clicking the Home button, where it is easy to choose which card to use before making a purchase.
How much does Apple Pay cost?
If you already hold an eligible card from ANZ or American Express and you have a compatible Apple product, the short answer is ‘nothing’. Apple does not charge users or merchants directly for contactless Apple Pay payments but negotiates with the card issuers directly for a slice of the revenue they receive from card payments. There has been speculation that the slow adoption of Apple Pay in Australia by banks has been because they were reluctant to share some of this revenue with Apple. Google’s competing “Android Pay” service does not require the payment of these fees by the card issuing banks.
If however, a merchant levies a surcharge for paying by credit cards, using Apple Pay will not avoid this fee. From the merchant’s point of view, Apple Pay transactions will cost them the same amount in fees as other contactless transactions.
How to set up Apple Pay?
The settings for Apple Pay on the iPhone reside within the “Wallet” app, which you may already use to store boarding passes, gift cards, or tickets. The Wallet app was renamed from “Passbook” after the initial release of Apple Pay, so if you haven’t updated the software on your iPhone in a while, look for the Passbook app instead. To load your card into Apple Pay:
Open the Wallet app.
Tap on the + in the top right corner of the screen.
Add your card by using your phone’s camera to read the details, or by manually entering them.
You will then be asked to read and accept ANZ’s Apple Pay terms and conditions. ANZ also says that you may be asked to call them, or receive a verification SMS as the final step to load your card.
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