Apple Pay Roundup: Everything We Know, Coming in October

Apple Pay is Apple's new mobile payments service, which it first debuted in September alongside the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus, and the Apple Watch. Apple Pay is expected to become widely available to consumers beginning in October, and ahead of its official release, we've gathered everything that's currently known about the service into a roundup so users can get an idea of what to expect.

With Apple Pay, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners will be able to make payments for goods and services with their iPhones, both in stores and within participating apps, using the NFC chip built into the devices. While Apple Pay will initially be restricted to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners, iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s users will also be able to take advantage of the service if they purchase an Apple Watch after it is released.

applepayroundup
Apple has described Apple Pay as the most secure payment solution available, as it uses Device Account Numbers rather than storing credit card numbers and keeps all payment information in a dedicated chip on the iPhone, called the Secure Element.

All payments are verified using Touch ID, which prevents someone who has stolen a device to make unauthorized purchases. Furthermore, if an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus is stolen, its ability to make payments can be disabled through Find My iPhone.

Apple has said that Apple Pay will be available beginning in October, enabled through an upcoming update to iOS 8.

The Apple Pay roundup, like all of our other roundups is accessible through a dedicated index page that shows a full list of all available roundups ordered by most recent update. The roundup is also accessible directly through the "Roundups" tab in the top navigation bar on all MacRumors pages.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Popular Stories

apple intelligence black

Report: Apple's AI Strategy Could Finally Pay Off in 2026

Tuesday December 30, 2025 9:01 am PST by
Apple's restrained artificial intelligence strategy may pay off in 2026 amid the arrival of a revamped Siri and concerns around the AI market "bubble" bursting, The Information argues. The speculative report notes that Apple has taken a restrained approach with AI innovations compared with peers such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta, which are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in data...
apple fitness 2026 1

Apple Teases 'Something Big' Coming Soon to Apple Fitness+

Tuesday December 30, 2025 2:11 pm PST by
The Apple Fitness+ Instagram account today teased that the service has "big plans" for 2026. In a video, several Apple Fitness+ trainers are shown holding up newspapers with headlines related to Apple Fitness+. What's Apple Fitness+ Planning for the New Year? Something Big is Coming to Apple Fitness+ The Countdown Begins. Apple Fitness+ 2026 is Almost Here 2026 Plans Still Under ...
maxresdefault

Hands-On With a Rough iPhone Fold Mockup

Monday December 29, 2025 10:55 am PST by
Apple is rumored to be introducing a foldable iPhone in September 2026, and since it will bring the biggest form factor change since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, curiosity about the design is high. A 3D designer created an iPhone Fold design based on rumors, and we printed it out to see how it compares to Apple's current iPhones. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
maxresdefault

Where's the New Apple TV?

Monday December 22, 2025 11:30 am PST by
Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
iphone 17 models

No iPhone 18 Launch This Year, Reports Suggest

Thursday January 1, 2026 8:43 am PST by
Apple is not expected to release a standard iPhone 18 model this year, according to a growing number of reports that suggest the company is planning a significant change to its long-standing annual iPhone launch cycle. Despite the immense success of the iPhone 17 in 2025, the iPhone 18 is not expected to arrive until the spring of 2027, leaving the iPhone 17 in the lineup as the latest...
iphone 17 pro dark blue 1

iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max Users Report Static Speaker Noise While Charging

Tuesday December 30, 2025 10:39 am PST by
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max owners are having trouble with the speakers of their devices, and have complained about a static or hissing noise that occurs when the iPhone is charging. There are multiple discussions about the issue on Reddit, the MacRumors forums, and Apple's Support Community, where affected users say there is a noticeable static noise "like an old radio." Some people report...
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature Purple

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Next Year With These 12 New Features

Tuesday December 23, 2025 8:36 am PST by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another nine months, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we have recapped 12 features rumored for the iPhone 18 Pro models. The same overall design is expected, with 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch display sizes, and a "plateau" housing three rear cameras Under-screen Face ID Front camera in...
Mac Pro Feature Blue

What's Happening With the Mac Pro?

Wednesday December 31, 2025 9:59 am PST by
Apple hasn't updated the Mac Pro since 2023, and according to recent rumors, there's no update coming in the near future. In fact, Apple might be finished with the Mac Pro. Bloomberg recently said that the Mac Pro is "on the back burner" and has been "largely written off" by Apple. Apple apparently views the more compact Mac Studio as the ideal high-end pro-level desktop, and it has almost...

Top Rated Comments

Drumjim85 Avatar
147 months ago
If you're re-upping your contract, the phone is just $199.

keep telling yourself that.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Desmondhuz Avatar
147 months ago
Tried you use my Walgreens passbook card and the cashier said the scanning system was down. But I looked down and saw a brand new nfc device scanner and remember that Walgreens was listed by Apple as an initial client. I told her about Apple Pay, which she had no clue about, and how it would start next month. She asked if I worked for Walgreens and I told her "I'm just in the know...about such things."
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lellis2k Avatar
147 months ago
Can England haz it plz
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jayducharme Avatar
147 months ago
While Apple Pay will initially be restricted to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners, iPhone 5, 5c, and 5s users will also be able to take advantage of the service if they purchase an Apple Watch after it is released.

LOL! It would probably be more cost-effective to upgrade to an iPhone 6 instead. Why spend money on an accessory to help you spend money?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gnasher729 Avatar
147 months ago
Hmm. Won't there be any sort of branding? How will we know if it takes Apple Pay?
Any NFC payment terminal will take Apple Pay.

Normally, the terminal identifies your debit card or credit card.

With Apple Pay, your iPhone creates a virtual credit card. The NFC terminal doesn't realise it's not a real card. It send the data about the credit card for example to Visa, Visa has worked with Apple and figures out that this is an Apple Pay virtual credit card and accepts it, so the NFC terminal accepts your card.

The NFC terminal has no idea what was going on. It only knows that it was given details of a card (it doesn't know it was a virtual card) and that Visa accepted the card.

The nice thing is that this virtual credit card will be used only _once_ for that one payment. So if you have a company losing 56 million credit card numbers to hackers, the hackers don't have your card number. They have a virtual card number that was accepted for that one payment, and won't be accepted for any other payment ever again.

And presumably Apple Pay, Google Wallet, ISIS (no, not those *******s who behead people) and all other NFC based systems follow the same standard and send essentially the same data (albeit encrypted with different keys, no not bit for bit identical) to the card reader, so how is Apple Pay any more secure than the others?
With Apple Pay, _nobody_ will ever see your credit card number. That includes Apple. Your credit card number cannot be stolen because nobody ever has it. That's different with Google Wallet. And Apple Pay requires a secure chip in the iPhone that does all the work, and that chip is not hackable.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Corrode Avatar
147 months ago
Hopefully all the kinks will be worked out and it'll be available in Canada by the time the 6S is released.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)