Apple Pay Support Goes Live for Germany's Sparkasse Debit Girocard

Apple Pay support came to Sparkasse's Giro card in Germany today. First spotted by iphone-ticker.de, the debit card, known as the "Sparkassen-Card," can now be stored in Apple's digital Wallet app, just like the bank's credit cards. This means that savings account customers can use the "most popular card in Germany" with ‌Apple Pay‌.


‌Apple Pay‌ support for a straightforward bank debit card is a first for Germany. The Sparkassen-Karte Basis debit card is has been compatible with ‌Apple Pay‌ since December 2019, but users have to load a balance from their bank account onto that card before they can use it to pay bills or go shopping. With the Sparkasse giro card, users can simply pay for things and the money is taken directly from their bank account.

‌Apple Pay‌‌ made its long-awaited debut in Germany back in December 2018 with multiple partners immediately jumping on board, but support from Sparkasse and Commerzebank was conspicuously absent on rollout day. It wasn't until December 2019 that ‌Apple Pay‌ users could add their Visa and Mastercard credit cards to the Wallet app.

‌‌Apple Pay‌‌ first launched in the United States in October 2014. Apple's mobile payment system allows users to make contactless payments for goods and services in retail stores using their iPhone or Apple Watch. You can view the full list of ‌‌Apple Pay‌‌ countries and regions on Apple's website.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Germany

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...

Top Rated Comments

urgs Avatar
63 months ago

lets see:

[LIST=1]
* Annual (or monthly) account fees (stupid)
* Transaction fees for contactless payments
* It costs like 5 bucks to withdraw money from a Sparkassen ATM with a Sparkassen CREDIT CARD while you can use any other direct bank credit card free of charge
* With some Sparkassen you have to pay for each additional "Banküberweisung" (money transfer) even though you already pay that damn fee mentioned in #1
* Horrible App
* You cannot deposit money to different Sparkassen because for some reason they are not all connected so what I basically had to do was ask my money to put money on my bank account and then hand her the money in cash next time I saw her since I no longer lived in the city my Sparkassen Account was made with
* There is probably more I cannot think of right now and it might depend on each "Sparkasse" individually. Which already points out another problem. Each Sparkasse doing its own thing over all

The Sparkasse is a cooperative bank - to be more explicit - it's a "Körperschaft Öffentlichen Rechts".
That means:
- they were not allowed to make any profit
- they are also not allowed to make money at several financial markets
- they have a social responsibility and support many local projects
- they have collective wage agreements for their employees


That's all for the good of our entire society.
I'm happy to pay some small fees, for not being a part of an anti social system.

Ask yourself, how other banks pay their bills, if they don't call for fees.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
itsmilo Avatar
63 months ago
too little too late, already cancelled and went to a direct bank instead. All their fees for nothing are ridiculous anyway. Some Sparkassen even added a "transaction fee" for contactless payments now.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
William Lawes Avatar
63 months ago

too little too late, already cancelled and went to a direct bank instead. All their fees for nothing are ridiculous anyway. Some Sparkassen even added a "transaction fee" for contactless payments now.
what do you mean with "all their fees"? I pay 2€ for my account management fees and for this I have a get a nationwide branch network. I have a Sparkassen branch right on my street corner. there are dozens in Berlin. I love their services.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
itsmilo Avatar
63 months ago

bad service? what are you talking about? the Sparkassen-goup is THE bank in Germany. it's the only bank you can rely on, really (and some other small banks). the rest is just shady business (e.g. Deutsche Bank)
lets see:

[LIST=1]
* Annual (or monthly) account fees (stupid)
* Transaction fees for contactless payments
* It costs like 5 bucks to withdraw money from a Sparkassen ATM with a Sparkassen CREDIT CARD while you can use any other direct bank credit card free of charge
* With some Sparkassen you have to pay for each additional "Banküberweisung" (money transfer) even though you already pay that damn fee mentioned in #1
* Horrible App
* You cannot deposit money to different Sparkassen because for some reason they are not all connected so what I basically had to do was ask my money to put money on my bank account and then hand her the money in cash next time I saw her since I no longer lived in the city my Sparkassen Account was made with
* There is probably more I cannot think of right now and it might depend on each "Sparkasse" individually. Which already points out another problem. Each Sparkasse doing its own thing over all
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
William Lawes Avatar
63 months ago


Attachment Image
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thewayfaerer Avatar
63 months ago

Apple Pay in Germany is useless as long as you cannot pay by card anyway at most shops and even restaurants. "Deutsche Gründlichtkeit", but not for digitization.
I'd say I pay about 90% of the time with apple pay in Germany. Shops, Restaurants, Taxi... can think of just one store where it does not work and this is because it does not accept visa. Which won't be an issue with the giro card anymore.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)