Apple Pay Support Begins Rolling Out for Select Banks in South Africa

In January, MacRumors reported that Apple Pay was likely to launch in South Africa sometime this year. As expected, ‌Apple Pay‌ has now started to go live in the country for customers of a select number of banks.

apple pay contactless terminal
MacRumors readers and bank customers on Twitter report seeing prompts to add their cards to ‌Apple Pay‌. So far, it seems that only Discovery, Nedbank, and Absa customers are able to add their cards to Apple's Wallet app.


To add a card to ‌Apple Pay‌, customers should open the Wallet app, tap the plus button, and follow the on-screen instructions. It's important to note that banks must first add support for ‌Apple Pay‌. Attempting to add an unsupported bank card will result in a pop-up reading, "Your issuer does not yet offer support for this card."

Apple's South African website hasn't yet been updated to reflect ‌Apple Pay‌'s rollout in the country, which isn't unusual, as rollout seems to have just begun in the past few hours.

Apple first launched ‌Apple Pay‌ in 2014 in the United States, and in the years since, it's slowly expanded to more countries around the world. Last month, ‌Apple Pay‌ officially launched in Mexico.

(Thanks Grant, Pieter, and Ludolph!)

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

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Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
59 months ago
Nice to see the global expansion.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
davidventer Avatar
59 months ago

In about 4-6 years, Apple Pay will be accepted around the globs. And in about 6-10 years, Apple Pay may be accepted at every store besides the ones that do membership.
It’s already accepted around the globe. You can literally use it anywhere contactless / tap to pay / NFC terminals are used. The hold up is the fact that not all bank cards can be used through Apple Pay yet. But if you have an Apple Pay compatible card, you can use Apple Pay anywhere where contactless payment is accepted, even in countries where linking a local bank card to Apple Pay isn’t possible.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mccdyl001 Avatar
59 months ago
Surprising to see that two of South Africa's larger banks, FNB and Standard Bank, are not on board from day one. They like to tout that they're modern and in with the times, but it looks like they were caught napping at the wheel. Nice to see 1st world technology finally arriving on our shores (even if it took 6+ years to get here!)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Separo Avatar
59 months ago
Can confirm works with Nedbank cards ?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)