Apple Pay Launches in Australia for American Express Cardholders

I'm confused by this sentiment. Last time I was in Australia about 50% of the stores that I saw had AmEx logos on their doors. Are they a particularly bad bank there or something?

Background to card payments in Australia...

CONTACTLESS PAYMENT: Has been up and running for 5 years already by simply tapping your credit/debit card on the reader at almost every retailer, or more recently your phone with NFC chip sticker on the back. Apple Pay is not a revolution in Australia, its a "who cares" moment. So instead of tapping your phone or card, you tap your phone or watch. Whoop-de-doo!!!

BANKS: there are four main banks in Australia who dominate banking. They take 82 cents per $100 card payment and they are unwilling to make a deal with Apple to hand over 15 cents when the contactless system that exists is in use everyday by nearly every Australian with a bank account. What's in it for the banks to do a deal with Apple? Nothing except a loss of profit.

AMEX: in Australia has in the past charged retailers EXCESSIVE fees for accepting payments. To share the love, retailers have in the past either decided not to accept Amex or charged customers additional fees on top of their purchase cost.

As a result many many Australians do not now and never will use Amex as they are viewed as overcharging scumbags. Some retailers, presumably in order top pick up the tourist dollar from overseas visitors, now accept Amex but for many Australians Amex carries a lot of negative baggage.

Amex has tried to expand its foothold in Australia by:
- reducing its fees slightly to retailers, although their reputation is ingrained in the Australian psyche and some retailers still charge higher fees for using Amex because the public expects them too.
- introducing co-branded Amex cards with large retailers like David Jones. These will work with Apple Pay as they are genuine Amex cards
- introducing co-branded Amex cards with the four banks (although these are usually supplementary cards to a Visa or Mastercard account with those banks). These are the bulk of Amex cards and WILL NOT WORK with Apple Pay because the banks will not give up their lucrative fees.

Australia has real coffee, only stupid Americans go to Starbucks in Australia thinking it sells "coffee".

This. Starbucks coffee is rubbish. There are many case studies as to why Starbucks failed in Australia - and the reason was because their coffee is horrible compared to local coffee shops that are literally everywhere.

There must be at least several dozen people in Australia that actively use Amex.

ApplePay is infinitely more useful in Australia, Canada, and the UK when cards are loaded into the iPhone than it is here in the U.S. I have every single Amex and Visa card I own linked to ApplePay and almost nowhere to use ApplePay except for fast food joints. And Apple's big news is that Dominos, KFC, Chili's and Cinnabon will be supporting ApplePay soon. Great...even more places to use the technology that my waistline doesn't need.

... stick on NFC chip which is compatible with any smart pone.

Stick on NFC chip... What could possibly go wrong?!

Just added my AMEX card here in Melbourne its 6:45am. Need to wait for the shops to open to try it out haha