Apple Pay is a pretty useful feature, especially when you keep your phone handier than your wallet, and you use it in tandem with other Wallet features such as scannable loyalty cards. That said, the NFC payments process is not always flawless, especially when you have to fumble with your iPhone to hit the Touch ID sensor while also lining it up properly with the contactless terminal.
Fortunately, there are a couple of useful tricks to help speed up the process.
Most importantly, you can pre-authenticate Touch ID on your iPhone before you’re ready to pay by bringing up the Wallet app and placing your finger on the Touch ID sensor briefly to verify your identity. Once authenticated, your iPhone will show the selected card and “Hold Near Reader to Pay” and you can remove your finger from the Touch ID sensor, making it much easier and faster to process payment at the terminal.
You can also get at the Wallet app even more quickly by double-tapping the Home button from the lock screen, saving you the trouble of having to unlock your iPhone and find your Wallet app icon. As an added bonus, these methods will also let you select an alternate card to use for Apple Pay if you have more than one card in your Wallet, rather than simply using a default card.
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