Apple Pay is finally here

American Express is the first credit card company in Singapore to implement Apple Pay. As an Amex user (who recently signed up to take advantage of the 5% cash rebate on the first $5000 spend, spending most of it on my recent Iceland trip) I got to task in keying my credit card information on iOS’s wallet app. The registration was dead simple and in no time at all, my credit card information was safely stored in my phone. I went to my nearby NTUC Fairprice supermarket, where it is one of the first few merchants to fully support Apple Pay and made my first purchase using my phone. It was magical and painless. I simply had to double tap my phone while in sleep mode and it immediately asked for my fingerprint to be scanned. Soon, once verified, I pointed my phone to the NFC payment device and immediately the phone gave a subtle vibration to notify you that the payment transaction was complete. And after that, the phone showed the purchase transaction I made in the wallet app.

Currently, Topshop, Topman, NTUC Fairprice supermarket, Starhub, Uniqlo and Starbucks are just some of a few merchants supporting Apple Pay, but my guess is that any merchant that supports American Express cards AND have the NFC payment device at the cash register would be able to use Apple Pay without any problems. Visa and associated local banks like OCBC, UOB and DBS will be implementing their credit cards to Apple Pay. Competitors like Samsung Pay is also rolling out its payment system sometime this year soon.

I really look forward to registering more of my credit cards to the wallet app in the future, and making payments using a smartphone as ubiquitous as swiping the credit card in the past.