Curve Pay instead of Apple Pay: another wallet competes with Apple
Curve was previously known for its Apple Pay integration. Now, the payment service is taking advantage of the new NFC freedom and launching its iPhone wallet.
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More wallet choices for iPhones: Curve Pay is another Apple Pay alternative. The payment ecosystem has been a “solo game” for Apple for far too long, said the founder of Curve, and this “monopoly” will now be ended. Under pressure from EU regulators, Apple had to open up the NFC interface on iPhones to other payment services; for many years, only its Apple Pay service was allowed to access it.
Curve Pay supports multiple cards
Unlike PayPal, which now also offers its iPhone wallet in Germany, Curve Pay is available throughout the European Economic Area (EEA). This means that iPhone users can choose a provider other than Apple for their standard wallet not only in Germany, but also for the first time in Austria and all other EU countries including Liechtenstein, Norway, and Iceland. The standard wallet is opened by double-pressing the iPhone's standby button.
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Similar to Apple Pay, you can also add your debit and credit cards to Curve Pay and then use them for payments at NFC checkout terminals. The service accepts Mastercard, Visa, and Diners Club. American Express and Girocard must remain outside.
Curve also integrated into Apple Pay
Curve offers some special functions that are not yet available in Apple Pay or Apple Wallet: These include, for example, that payments can be subsequently assigned to another credit card and that several cards serve as an automatic fallback should the card used be declined. There is also a cashback program and the option to integrate PayPal.
Curve was primarily known for its Apple Pay integration: The service enabled users early on to use debit and credit cards from banks with Apple Pay that did not even support it in Germany – as was the case with Postbank for a long time. The option to integrate Curve into Apple Pay was still available on Friday. Whether this will now change with the company's own NFC wallet remains unclear for now.
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