Barclays Confirms it Will Launch Apple Pay by Late March

Barclays has confirmed that it will launch Apple Pay within the next 45 to 60 days, based on a two-week-old email dated January 12, suggesting the large British bank will support the iPhone-based mobile payments service by no later than March 28.

Barclays Apple Pay UK
The launch date was provided by Barclays CEO of Personal and Corporate Banking Ashok Vaswani in what appears to be a legitimate email sent to customer Oli Foster-Burnell, and later reported by Engadget. We can verify the executive has emailed customers about Apple Pay in the past.

Barclays is the only financial institution among the "Big Four" banks in the U.K. that has yet to adopt Apple Pay. The country's participating issuers include the Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, Tesco Bank, TSB and Ulster Bank.


Apple Pay launched in the U.K. in July 2015 at more than 250,000 locations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Barclays is perhaps the most notable holdout from the group of banks supporting the mobile payments service. The bank serves over 48 million customers.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Popular Stories

streaming black friday 2025

Black Friday Streaming Deals Include Big Savings on Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV, and More

Monday November 24, 2025 8:03 am PST by
We've been focusing on deals on physical products over the past few weeks, but Black Friday is also a great time of year to purchase a streaming membership. Some of the biggest services have great discounts for new and select returning members this week, including Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Adds These New Features to Your iPhone

Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by
iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date. Keep reading...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Have Two Key Upgrades

Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by
iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features. Gurman said there is one exception to this rule, though, as he expects...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like a Huge Upgrade

Friday November 21, 2025 9:10 am PST by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through all of the new features and improvements expected to come to next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's next-generation iPhones are less than ten months away and we already have a good idea about what to expect based on corroborated leaks, rumors,...
General Black Friday Deals 25 Red

Apple Black Friday Deals Available Now on AirPods, iPads, Accessories, and More

Friday November 21, 2025 8:48 am PST by
We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...
Apple Shopping Event 2025

Apple Announces 2025 Black Friday Event, Here's What You Can Get

Thursday November 20, 2025 6:28 am PST by
Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 28 through Monday, December 1 in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and others. During the shopping event, customers can get an Apple gift card with...
hikawa phone grip stand apple%402x

Apple Launches Second Limited-Edition iPhone Accessory in a Month

Friday November 21, 2025 3:53 am PST by
Apple has begun selling the Hikawa Phone Grip and Stand, a new limited-edition iPhone accessory designed with accessibility in mind. Designed by LA-based Bailey Hikawa to celebrate the 40th anniversary of accessibility at Apple, the grip uses magnets to securely snap onto any iPhone with MagSafe. Apple says it can be removed with ease, and doubles as a stand with two different viewing...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Foldable iPhone to Debut These Two Breakthrough Features

Wednesday November 19, 2025 7:26 am PST by
Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include two standout features that could set it apart from the competition. The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...
apple news banner

Apple News Loses CNN

Monday November 24, 2025 7:56 am PST by
American multinational news company CNN has abruptly pulled its content from Apple News, Semafor reports. CNN quietly removed its stories from Apple News over the weekend and there is no longer a feed from the network to subscribe to in the app. This effectively ends its distribution agreement with Apple while the two sides negotiate new terms. Discussions are apparently ongoing and CNN's...

Top Rated Comments

petef1 Avatar
128 months ago
I've used Apple Pay ever since First Direct supported it last Autumn. Absolutely love it.

I've found more and more retailers want to take your card in their possession and it was starting to irritate me - especially for contactless payments. Apple Pay forces the retailer to pass me the machine, not my card to them.

A few weeks ago I was in a pub and my Apple Pay was rejected. Anyway, long story short, they managed to get hold of my card after more 'rejections' and sent me away to my GF to get her card (stupidly leaving my card on the bar) which the barmaid picked up and tried to do another contactless payment without my authorisation and clearly took my cvv number. My card was cloned and they unsuccessfully (fortunately, as FD spotted it) attempted to pay for some random £1 purchases and then tried to book a holiday on my card.

Basically, if somewhere doesn't support Apple Pay, I'm extremely wary now.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
beanbaguk Avatar
128 months ago
I assume you mean “arsed” not asked.

I guess you’ve not heard of the new 7 day switch system?

I’ve just switched to Santander from Nationwide (not for Apple Pay reasons). 5 minutes to fill in an online form and that’s it. 7 days later your account, all direct debits, standing orders, contacts, cards….every swaps to your new bank. In fact took me 5 days.

Pretty hassle free if you ask me.
Hassle free if you have no long term commitments such as mortgages or you can find an account which matches what you have at Barclays. I have a "legacy" account which no longer exists with a very large interest free overdraft, breakdown cover, mobile phone cover, and numerous other advantages. No other bank offers anything like it right now so there isn't a chance I would switch and lose all that for Apple Pay.

We're not all students!

Additionally, I doubt Barclays would have lost many customers as a result of this. Only a very small number of people (such as a small minority on here), would actually care about this and Barclays couldn't care less about you if you tried.

That and probably 90% of Barclays revenue arrives through commercial banking so the fact that they probably lost 0.005% of their customers as a result of not having Apple Pay is....well meaningless.

It's very amusing how some people feel that without Apple, the world would almost fall apart! I've had Apple Pay for three months now (since I got my 6S), and I've only ever used it once....most of my friends with iPhones say exactly the same!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MLVC Avatar
128 months ago
Yeah yeah, what about the rest of Europe?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Robert.Walter Avatar
128 months ago
(Cue fanfare...)

Barclays Pay is dead!
Long live Pay!
[doublepost=1453812488][/doublepost]
Yeah yeah, what about the rest of Europe?
Yeah, what he said!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
craig1410 Avatar
128 months ago
The end result is still that Android users and others will happily use HCE payments, while iPhone users can do nothing but wait for the illustrious Apple Pay that may never arrive in their country.
I guess that's why Google Wallet has been such a resounding success - lol

Between myself, my wife and my kids I would say we conduct well over 50% of our electronic transactions via Apple Pay now. Mostly using the Apple Watch because it is so convenient and so far very reliable. It uses tokenisation so it's private and secure and I can use it pretty much anywhere that contactless is used. Android users typically don't care so much about privacy or security so I guess they'll use whatever is available, or not use it as was the case with Wallet.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pagemakers Avatar
128 months ago
About bloody time. It's ridiculous. I wonder how many customers they've lost over this. I would swap, just can't be asked.
I assume you mean “arsed” not asked.

I guess you’ve not heard of the new 7 day switch system?

I’ve just switched to Santander from Nationwide (not for Apple Pay reasons). 5 minutes to fill in an online form and that’s it. 7 days later your account, all direct debits, standing orders, contacts, cards….every swaps to your new bank. In fact took me 5 days.

Pretty hassle free if you ask me.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)