Two popular Japanese prepaid money cards will be gaining support for Apple Pay later this year, allowing the cards to be added to the Wallet app for contactless payments using an iPhone or Apple Watch where accepted, it was announced today.
The cards set to gain Apple Pay support include Seven & I's Nanaco card and AEON's WAON card, as noted by Ata Distance. The blog, which focuses on mobile payment and transit cards in Japan, believes it will likely become possible to add the cards to the Wallet app shortly after the public release of iOS 15, which is expected in September.
As part of its Apple Pay announcement, Seven & I said it has issued around 74 million Nanaco cards that are accepted at around 800,000 retail locations in Japan, including 7-Eleven and Ito-Yokado stores. Likewise, AEON said it has issued over 87 million WAON cards that are accepted at more than 840,000 retail locations across the island country.
Apple Pay continues to expand to more issuers around the world, including ING in Belgium and FNB in South Africa earlier this month.
Nanaco and WAON cards appear to have very cute branding ?
Very clever names, too.
How do these compare to Suica on apple pay? Suica is super easy to reload on your phone (can use apple pay credit card). But maybe these two are accepted in more places?
Each has its segment of the market. Nanaco will be good at 7-Eleven convenience stores and (more importantly to me) supermarkets under the Seven and I Holdings umbrella. Waon is accepted at other convenience store and supermarket chains.
Suica is widely accepted, and has the huge advantage of being able to be set as an express transit card. So, even when used for non-transit transactions (stores, restaurants, etc.), it's not necessary to double-click the iPhone or Apple watch. Just wave and go.
"Nana" is one way to pronounce the word "seven," which refers to the "seven" in "Seven and I Holdings" (itself a combination of "7-Eleven" and the first letter in "Ito Yokado," which is part of the conglomerate).
The Waon card mascot is a dog, and "waon" is an onomatopoieia for a dog's bark, and the Waon NFC terminals make a barking sound when the transaction is successful.
Most Japanese e-payment cards have very clever names. Here's a page from a book I helped write that explains the meaning of Suica (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) as well as the Icoca card.
Most Japanese e-payment cards have very clever names. Here's a page from a book I helped write that explains the meaning of Suica (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) as well as the Icoca card.
Thank you! I was wondering why they called this card "watermelon"… ?
Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that it is now allowing traders to use bank cards linked to Apple Pay to purchase crypto assets on the platform.
"Today, we're introducing new and seamless ways to enable crypto buys with linked debit cards to Apple Pay and Google Pay, and instant cashouts up to $100,000 per transaction available 24/7," said a Coinbase blog post on...
Popular cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase today announced that the Coinbase Card now supports Apple Pay and Google Pay. Select customers will be invited from the Coinbase Card waitlist starting this week.
Coinbase Card is a debit card, so signing up will not impact your credit score, and there are no application fees. Once you are approved for the card, you can immediately begin...
Visa has announced that starting today, customers in Japan will be able to use their Visa debit or credit card with Apple Pay.
Customers with Visa cards issued by Aplus, SMBC Finance Service, NTT DoCoMo, Credit Saison, JACCS, Mitsui Sumitomo Bank Card, and Rakuten cards will be able to add their card to their Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch.
Japan has set an ambitious goal of...
Only six percent of iPhone users in the United States who have Apple Pay set up actually use the feature, according to a detailed study by PYMNTS.
Seven years after Apple Pay launched in September 2014, 93.9 percent of consumers with Apple Pay activated on their iPhone do not use it to pay for in-store purchases, meaning that only 6.1 percent do.
In 2015, the year following Apple Pay's...
Tuesday August 3, 2021 4:01 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
ING Belgium today announced support for Apple Pay, offering the bank's customers another way to pay using contactless without needing their physical debit card to hand.
The 1.4 million customers who do their banking via the ING Banking app will now be able to use their ING cards with Apple Pay to make payments even more easily, said the bank in a press release.
"We're constantly looking for ...
Wednesday April 28, 2021 12:24 pm PDT by Steve Moser
Popular cryptocurrency platform Coinbase appears to be working to make its Visa Debit Card, Coinbase Card, compatible with Apple Pay for purchases in stores, in apps, and online.
MacRumors has discovered evidence of upcoming Apple Pay support for Coinbase Card in the Coinbase app code in the form of a recently added image asset called "CardGoogleApplePay."
The company's Coinbase Card for...
Apple is developing a new pay later service that will let customers pay for Apple Pay purchases in installments over time, reports Bloomberg. Installment payment options will be available for all Apple Pay purchases, with the feature not limited to Apple products.
The service is similar to Paypal's Buy Now, Pay Later feature, and internally, it's being called "Apple Pay Later."
Apple is...
The Chinese smartphone maker Oppo appears to be preparing "Oppo Card" as a rival to Apple Card, following similar moves by Apple competitors Google, Samsung, and Huawei.
According to Chinese trademark filings seen by DroidMaze, Oppo has filed to trademark "Oppo Card." The trademark is filed under international classifications, meaning that the company hopes to use the "Oppo Card" brand...
Apple Pay has launched for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac users in Qatar, expanding Apple's regional reach for its mobile payment solution, according to a post by the QNB Group (via AppleInsider).
Apple Pay in Qatar will first be available with the Dukhan Bank and QNB Group, which calls itself the "largest financial institution in the Middle East and Africa." Other banks in the country can be...
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.
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...
When Apple released iOS 14.5 in April, it introduced the ability to unlock your iPhone with Face ID while wearing a mask, as long as you are wearing an Apple Watch. Here are some troubleshooting tips.
New features for FaceTime calls, tools to reduce distractions, a new notifications experience, added privacy features, complete redesigns for Safari, Weather, and Maps, and more.
/article-new/2021/08/nanaco-apple-pay.jpg?lossy)
/article-new/2021/08/waon-apple-pay.jpg?lossy)
Top Rated Comments
Each has its segment of the market. Nanaco will be good at 7-Eleven convenience stores and (more importantly to me) supermarkets under the Seven and I Holdings umbrella. Waon is accepted at other convenience store and supermarket chains.
Suica is widely accepted, and has the huge advantage of being able to be set as an express transit card. So, even when used for non-transit transactions (stores, restaurants, etc.), it's not necessary to double-click the iPhone or Apple watch. Just wave and go.
The Waon card mascot is a dog, and "waon" is an onomatopoieia for a dog's bark, and the Waon NFC terminals make a barking sound when the transaction is successful.
Most Japanese e-payment cards have very clever names. Here's a page from a book I helped write that explains the meaning of Suica (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) as well as the Icoca card.