Apple Pay is in New Zealand Now

It's a bit odd that New Zealand, which really is miles ahead of many other countries when it comes to digital payments and financial services, didn't get Apple Pay until today.

Apple Pay was announced two years ago, and the Australian's have had it since December last year for American Express, April this year for Visa and August for MasterCard, both via ANZ.

Either way, it's here, through ANZ. Here's why you might want it: 

First, yes, the whole thing is designed very well in typical Apple fashion and just works.

Setting up Apple pay is very easy. Just use the credit card registered with iTunes, or scan in the plastic and click a few times in the Wallet app on your iPhone or iPad, and you're done. We'll it'll have to be ANZ cards of course, at least for now.

Using Apple Pay is very simple: just hover your iPhone over any Paywave-enabled terminal that can do contactless payments, and put a finger on the Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

That's it. You've paid for that coffee.

The Wallet can store loyalty and other cards too, and include them with your card transactions. 

Another reason for ANZ iPhone owners to use Apple Pay - there's no setup, fees or application required to get it going - is that you pay for stuff in the US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries, with more coming onstream.

You don't need internet access to buy stuff either, as the terminal records the transaction, and the Apple devices provide the authentication for it, so nothing has to be sent networks to cloud servers.

One feature that was definitely worth waiting for is the ability to use Apple Pay with the macOS Safari web browser for purchases. No need to create an account and login, just click the Apple Pay button on participating sites, put a finger on the iPhone's Touch ID sensor, and you're away. Web purchases are PIN-less until $80.

So, who's on board with Apple Pay?

- NZ Herald