Apple on Tuesday announce partnerships with five major Singapore banks to offer support for Apple Pay in the country. Customers of the banks can now add their Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards to Apple’s contactless payments system.
With support from POSB, DBS Bank, OCBC Bank, United Overseas Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, Apple Pay can now be provisioned with more than 80 percent of all Visa and MasterCard cards issued in the country, the Straight Times reports. Apple Pay launched in Singapore last month through a deal with American Express.
There was quite a bit of work that needed to be pulled off behind the scenes to bring Apple Pay to Singapore banks. Any institution wanting to offer support for the service was required to install new backend transaction verification systems, as well as other dedicated assets to allow use of the service.
The move allows iPhone and Apple Watch users to pay with their devices at around 30,000 locations. As a rule, touchless payment transactions are capped at $100. However, UOB has lifted the limitation when customers are making purchases at larger retail chains, such as Singapore Petroleum Company, Caltex and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
Singapore-based iPhone and Apple Watch users can add their compatible MasterCard or Visa debit and credit cards to Apple Pay, by doing the following:
- iPhone users running iOS 9 can go to the Wallet app and tap the “+” icon in the upper right-hand corner to begin, and then just follow the prompts. Users of iPads with Touch ID can add a card to the service to use in apps by going into “Settings” -> “Wallet & Apple Pay” to add a card there.
- Apple Watch users will need to enter the Watch app on their iPhone, Tap on the “Wallet & Apple Pay” option, and then tap the “Add Credit or Debit Card” option.
