Android Pay live in UK

Ballard

I'm wondering what the incentive is for the issuers to push this technology. For each transaction they pay a commission to Apple/Google/Whoever and this comes out of their p&l so is the agenda to eventually do away with the physical card and lose the expense of issuing them?

I personally don't think that that'll happen any time soon. Firstly not everyone has a phone or one that's capable of being used as a payment method. Even if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't be comfortable going out with just my phone even if every single transaction could use them. What if I dropped it and it ceased to work or more simply it was stolen or the battery died?

From reading these forums, I'm one of the very few people who has no interest in using it so there's no doubt that it will become more and more common as consumers upgrade their phones over the coming couple of years. Hopefully the technology will improve and it'll be accepted first time every time soon (note: physical cards don't always work first time either but the success rate, in my experience, is much higher). Additionally, the use of smart watches will surely increase and this will be a further push towards Apple/Android Pay.

Cloudane

Not so long ago, I remember "card payments will never take off, I'm perfectly capable of writing a cheque" and then "who wants Chip and PIN, I'd rather sign my name, it'll never become popular"...

agrinnall

I used Android Pay yesterday on TfL to go from Uxbridge to Wembley for the FA Vase final, it's a bit slow to register it's presence with the scanners but it seemed to work OK, and the notification of the £3 cost eventually came through from TfL to my phone about 10 hours after I completed the journey.

colin79666

Deleted and then registered my FD card again and it worked first time in Costa Coffee today, so I guess something was broken with the virtual card before. Still slower than just using the contactless card though as the phone is difficult to hold close enough to the reader without obscuring the lights that show it is working.

sharp910sh

I have used it three times now, its very simple to use and I like that you do not have to unlock the phone just turn it on and put it over the card reader. It seems like anyone could steal my phone and use it.

Hmmm.

Shame natwest does not support it.

agrinnall

sharp910sh wrote: »

It seems like anyone could steal my phone and use it.

No different to a contactless card in that respect.

GingerFurball_2

sharp910sh wrote: »

It seems like anyone could steal my phone and use it.

You need to have a screenlock to enable Android Pay.

cheesetoast

GingerFurball wrote: »

You need to have a screenlock to enable Android Pay.

But you don't actually need to unlock the phone for transactions under £30.

Murmansk

Wilko and WH Smith don't currently accept Android Pay because of a technical problem

https://support.google.com/androidpay/answer/6289427?hl=en-GB

Ballard

agrinnall wrote: »

the notification of the £3 cost eventually came through from TfL to my phone about 10 hours after I completed the journey.

I suspect that TfL process the payments overnight as the daily/weekly cap might come into effect.