Barclays Confirms Apple Pay Support in Future, First Direct and HSBC Delayed Until Later This Month

Barclays Apple Pay UKBarclays today announced that it will support Apple Pay for debit and credit cards in the United Kingdom in the future, confirming a MacRumors report that claimed the bank expected "imminent" support of the mobile payments service.

Apple Pay officially launched in the U.K. earlier today and can be used at more than 250,000 locations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A full list of retail shops and apps that accept Apple Pay can be found on Apple's website.

Apple has also updated its Apple Pay participating banks list in the U.K. and moved First Direct and HSBC to the "coming soon" section. First Direct has confirmed on Twitter that Apple Pay will be "available later in July," while HSBC tweeted that it will be "launching Apple Pay by the end of this month." It was expected that the banks would support Apple Pay in the U.K. at launch today.

HSBC First Direct Apple Pay UK
The full list of U.K. financial institutions that currently support Apple Pay per Apple's website includes American Express, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank. The banks listed under coming soon include Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank and TSB. As of today's announcement, Barclays should be added to that list soon as well.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

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Top Rated Comments

Zxxv Avatar
136 months ago
Wish I wrote the headlines and articles. Maybe I should start a website.

Yours

Barclays today announced ('https://twitter.com/BarclaysUK/status/620861754424299520') that it will support Apple Pay for debit and credit cards in the United Kingdom in the future, confirming a MacRumors report that claimed the bank expected "imminent" support ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/10/barclays-apple-pay-imminent/')of the mobile payments service.
Apple has also updated its Apple Pay participating banks list ('https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-pay/') in the U.K. and moved First Direct and HSBC to the "coming soon" section. First Direct has confirmed ('https://twitter.com/firstdirecthelp/status/620920370032431104') on Twitter that Apple Pay will be "available later in July," while HSBC tweeted ('https://twitter.com/HSBC_UK_Help/status/620917702442532864') that it will be "launching Apple Pay by the end of this month."
Mine

In an effort to not lose customers Barclays today scrambled following what can only be described as a major balls up. Despite having over 8 months to prepare they say it will support Apple Pay for debit and credit cards in the United Kingdom in wait for this....the future. When that is is anyone guess.
Apple has also updated its Apple Pay participating banks list ('https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-pay/') in the U.K. and moved First Direct and HSBC to the "coming soon" section after they failed to do sweet f*** all in the last 8 months. First Direct has now like barclays scrambled to not loose customers by confirm ('https://twitter.com/firstdirecthelp/status/620920370032431104')ing on Twitter that Apple Pay will be "available later in July," note no year is confirmed. Maybe its 2046? HSBC tweeted ('https://twitter.com/HSBC_UK_Help/status/620917702442532864') that it will be "launching Apple Pay by the end of this month" Atleast they gave it as this year
I like mine better :)
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
markfc Avatar
136 months ago
Glad I moved to Nationwide. Just bought my first Apple Pay lunch at Co-Operative. :)

1st person to do it to so had a little staff crowd watching.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SoyCapitanSoyCapitan Avatar
136 months ago
Stickers, fobs and bracelets is not what people want
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jimrod Avatar
136 months ago
Lots of people crying, I mean really - just use your chip and pin card.

I tried to authorise a HSBC card to Apple pay outside Tesco's just now before lunch, it didn't work (I hadn't seen the news) so I used my chip and pin card as I do every other day. This had literally zero effect on my life. I'll get over waiting a couple of weeks before it's working...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Hustler1337 Avatar
136 months ago
'Future' is too vague, it could be Christmas 2015 for all we know.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DannyT2011 Avatar
136 months ago
Does anyone know if banks need to implement significant infrastructure changes? or is it a case of just ticking 'Apple Pay' on the options of a contactless vendor machine?

I can't understand why Barclays is pissing about.
Maybe they were stalling so they could brag about bPay and how successful it wasn't
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)