Bank of Ireland now supports Apple Pay on iPhone and Apple Watch

apple watch apple pay (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Apple Pay is now supported by Bank of Ireland.
Users can set up Apple Pay on both their Apple Watch and iPhone.
Apple Pay is more important than ever as people try to avoid using cash.

Today is a good day for anyone who banks with Bank of Ireland after it enabled Apple Pay on its debit cards for the first time. Now users can add their cards to the Wallet app on iPhone and Apple Watch and make contactless payments using their devices.

People are choosing to use contactless payments wherever possible right now in an attempt to help halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to an Independent report, use of Apple Pay has been so strong in Ireland of late that Curve – a card that aggregates other banks' cards into one physical one – has seen a 78% increase in sign-ups. Curve already supports Apple Pay and can be used to get the feature when a user's own bank doesn't support it.

Fintech company Curve recently reported a spike in Irish users after adding more features for mobile payments.Chief operating officer Nathalie Oestmann said the company saw a 78pc boost in sign-ups in Ireland in August. Curve provides Apple Pay and Google Pay to users whose banks may not supply those services.

Those with Bank of Ireland debit cards can now make contactless payments using their iPhone and Apple Watch, but they can also now use the same feature to pay websites and services without needing to use their card, too. That adds a layer of security that entering your card details into a website simply can't match.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.