Following yesterday’s roll-out of Apple Pay in the U.S., a number of users are reporting that the service also works with standard NFC terminals in other countries, provided of course that the user has registered a credit card or debit card from a participating U.S. bank. NFC terminals that accept VISA payWave or MasterCard PayPass cards will also apparently accept payments from an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus setup for Apple Pay with a U.S. card. Although Apple has only announced partnerships with specific U.S. retailers, Apple Pay unsurprisingly appears to use standard NFC payment technology, effectively allowing it to work with the NFC payment systems that are already extremely common outside of the U.S.
This suggests that the key to rolling Apple Pay out internationally will require integration with banking systems rather than point-of-sale retail systems in most countries, although Apple is likely involving retailers to ensure a commitment to supporting NFC technology in general and benefit from marketing the Apple Pay service as a practical consumer feature. Apple for its part has made no specific comments about rolling out Apple Pay internationally beyond a statement by Apple CEO Tim Cook during yesterday’s earnings call that “we can’t wait to sign up more retailers and extend it around the world.” [via 9to5Mac]
