Apple announced its NFC-based Apple Pay payment system today that allows shoppers to go to physical retail stores and make purchases using their iPhone, rather than a physical credit card. With Apple Pay, users would just need to tap their phones to a compatible payment reader at their local market, and then the stored credit card information would be used for payments, making it fast, secure, and easy. It's similar to how the Softcard, formerly known as ISIS payments, and Google Wallet works.
Though you can set a default credit card to always use, you can also conveniently switch between cards without even unlocking your phone. Check out how this works in our quick video below:
Essentially, with the phone locked and off, bring it close to the NFC payment reader. This will bring up options for the credit cards that are stored. All your stored credit cards will display in Passbook. Now, you can tap on which card you want to use. Next, to pay, simply put your finger on the Touch ID sensor to authenticate and bring the phone back to the NFC payment reader to tap to pay.
While this is a quick demo into Apple's foray into NFC payments, be sure to check back with iMore where we'll have a full detailed look at Apple Pay and how this system will work.
Reader comments
Passbook makes switching between different credit cards in Apple Pay simple
As I posted on the other story:
The NFC part on the phone is pretty standard stuff. It is standard because it is just that, a standard. Google implemented it and now Apple implemented it. Actually, the NFC part of Apple's presentation today was boring.
They made a point about using a virtual CC number. Well, yeah, they HAD to do this. If a person has a plastic card with a NFC chip, it would conflict with using that same CC number on the device. This is because the NFC payment standard has a counter to prevent replay attacks. This is the reason that Google Wallet shows the last four numbers of the real card and the virtual card for each tap and pay transaction.
The secure element? Yeah, same thing. That part is a standard. I noticed they made a point that this wasn't the "secure enclave", but a different chip for the CC info. It is the same sort of chip that is in all Android phones with tap and pay.
I am happy that Apple is on the NFC bandwagon. The faster everyone can get on to the standard, the faster we can kill the magstripe. It is a good thing.
Welcome to the party Apple!
Somehow I missed this: Will Apple Pay work with 5S under iOS8?
Only if you have an Apple Watch paired with the iPhone 5.
Does Passbook now hold credit cards even if Apple Pay may not be available on older devices?