Apple Pay Launches in Australia for American Express Cardholders

Apple Pay has launched in Australia in partnership with American Express, expanding iPhone-based mobile payments to a fourth country following Canada earlier this week. The service can be used at Coles, Harvey Norman, Kmart, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Woolworths and other select Australian stores that accept American Express and have NFC-equipped payment terminals.

American Express cardholders can add credit cards in the Wallet app on iOS 9.1 by tapping the “Add Credit or Debit Card” option. This functionality may still be rolling out to all iPhones set to Australia under Settings > General > Language & Region, but should be live for all Australian users by Thursday evening.

American Express is not as popular or widely accepted as MasterCard or Visa in Australia, but the partnership could place pressure on negotiations between Apple and Australian banks like Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac. Bank-issued debit and credit cards do not support Apple Pay in Australia at this time.

#ApplePay day is here in Australia. pic.twitter.com/8C5XfSnpWv

— Mike Boyd (@mike_boyd) November 18, 2015

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAustralia, like Canada and many European countries, has been well prepared for Apple Pay, as many retailers and businesses have the required contactless payments infrastructure in place. The country has also adopted Chip-and-PIN cards, and Apple Pay is a natural extension of that functionality.

Apple has slowly rolled out Apple Pay since announcing the service, starting with the U.S. in October 2014 and expanding to the U.K. last July. Beyond Australia and Canada, Apple is also partnering with American Express to bring Apple Pay to Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong next year.

Apple Pay recently gained support for Tesco Bank and TSB in the U.K. and over 90 new participating U.S. issuers. Yesterday, Apple confirmed that Apple Pay support is also coming to Domino’s and Cinnabon in the U.S. by yearend and 2016 respectively. Starbucks, KFC and Chili’s locations will adopt Apple Pay next year.

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