Tap to Pay launches in Germany: iPhones accept contactless payments
Merchants can now receive NFC payments directly with an iPhone. This is not suitable for exchanging money personally between two iPhones.
(Image: Apple)
Apple is bringing its "Tap to Pay" service to Germany: retailers in this country can now also use iPhones on site as NFC checkout terminals – without the need for specialized additional hardware. The customer simply holds their preferred contactless payment method up to the retailer's iPhone as usual. This works with a smartphone and Apple Pay or Google Pay, as well as with NFC-enabled cards, as the company announced.
Support for Girocard to follow
This should ultimately make it easier for small and medium-sized retailers in particular to accept contactless payments. Payment processing is not handled by Apple itself, but by common payment service providers. At the launch in Germany, Adyen, SumUp and myPOS, among others, are offering this to their customers. The fees incurred by merchants are determined by the respective provider.
Stripe, Revolut and the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe will follow as further payment service providers for "Tap to Pay" in the course of the year, according to Apple. The company is already using the service in its own stores, and this is also set to happen in Germany. Apple emphasized that it has "no knowledge" of Tap to Pay transactions and that no card numbers or transaction information are stored on the iPhone POS terminal.
At launch, the service will accept payments with credit and debit cards such as Mastercard and Visa. In the future, it will also be possible to pay at the iPhone terminals using contactless (or Apple Pay-integrated) Girocard. The savings banks will provide the corresponding support for this in 2024, Apple promises.
No iPhone direct payment between private users
Tap to Pay has been available since 2022 and the service is already available in the first other European countries, including Italy and the Netherlands. The function should not be confused with an innovation announced for iOS 18: in the future, users will be able to exchange money directly between two iPhones by holding the devices together. However, this feature, called "Tap to Cash", is linked to the "Apple Cash" account, which is only available in the USA, and is therefore not on board in Germany.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(lbe)