We’re dealing with three things here that are not necessarily related:
First: European residents can legally have bank accounts / cards in other European countries. So it is totally fine to open a French Boon account if you’re Italian. It is simply Boon’s decision if they want to offer their services for Italians.
Second: Apple IDs come with a nationality. From early on, Apple IDs and accounts are limited to one country. This is how they deal with DRM, availability of certain apps and services in certain markets, different prices, and so on. Apple mostly uses two methods to verify a customer’s residency: a valid address and a credit card that is issued in that same country. This is why people outside UK can’t add a Revolut card to their iTunes account. But Apple was never strict about preventing workarounds: If one wanted a US iTunes account, it is relatively easy to get a second Apple ID. This is the way people in countries without Apple Pay use Boon for example: via a French Apple ID. Neither banks nor Apple itself actively try to plug these loopholes. Why should they? Everyone makes money if people use it.
Nothing new so far.
And third: Apple’s way of rolling out Apple Pay: before a bank can offer Apple Pay, they have to implement the technology. This process is tightly controlled by Apple. They lend the equipment for tests to banks. Only relatively small teams in banks work on it. NDAs for sure. There were rumors about a legacy software from SAP being one of the obstacles for some European banks. Apple might just want to do that one country after another, because it is easier to organize for them.
So what Apple could do is to allow users to add “foreign” cards. If it is already totally legal and common for Italian users to own a French card, Apple could allow Italian users to add all European cards to the wallet app. Kind of a soft rollout. And Apple would not have to change anything else about how Apple IDs are connected to a customers country of residency.
I am not aware of any rumors that they are considering this. But Apple would acknowledge here that Europe is not a bunch of separate countries but a single market where traditional market restrictions based on residency artificially limit the scope of their customer base.
Like with DRM: Apple officially limits the availability to markets due to the demand of rights owners. Maybe they don’t open the service because they don’t want to hamper negotiations with potential future partners in countries like Germany.
Bank accounts, as those offered by entities with bank licenses, are not the same as prepaid cards or any other financial products provider. E-money institutions have different limitations on how they operate.
If Apple’s DRM system relies on Geo restrictions and DRM “users” (DRMed content providers) find this DRM ineffective, they might have serious trouble.
Yes, I know, but the point still stands. Regulations aside, they are also free to offer their services to all EU residents. Regarding Apple Pay, from a customer’s perspective, It does not matter that Wirecard is a bank and Revolut “just” an e-money provider. And why should it matter from Apple’s perspective?
I guess they have a dedicated team working on each country and bank implementation and they just don’t want to. Like, they want to have detailed control of the process (?)
True, but the point I was trying to make was that Apple could simply allow their EU customers to add foreign, already Apple Pay certified cards, to wallets without changing how they are handling other restrictions based on residency or how they roll out Apple Pay. The workarounds already show that it is perfectly possible to add a French card to an iOS device that is set to German, for example. They could lift the unnecessary step to change residency before adding the card.
There are only two reasons I can think of why they would do that: they simply don’t care about the difference the single market area means. It is like someone from Texas can’t add a card from California. Or they don’t want to weaken their leverage when it comes to negotiations with potential new partner banks.
Yes, they are, but we still wait for it
BTW. In Poland NFC-HCE(debit card) payment are available over 1,5 year, credit card over a year. Android pay - almost a year (both :debit and credit card) . Apple pay is announced by BZWBK before the end of this year
By the time they come up with it will be irrelevant, because at least EU countries will have at least one bank offering it. That’s something i said half a year or more ago.
And knowing how unstable this service is i wouldn’t risk my money anyway.
But you see I couldn’t care less who’s fault it is. Every time I do something with Revolut i’m risking and this is kinda a deal breaker for any person with some brain function.
Not to mention that there is no phone number to call or proper ticket system to resolve issues. Waiting X days and repeating the same thing to 2 or 3 different people gets real old real fast.
Here in the UK, mobile-only bank Starling has beaten Revolut to the international Apple Pay punch (https://www.starlingbank.com/features/). The only difference between the services as far as I can tell is the exchange rate used; Revolut uses Interbank, Starling uses MasterCard. Oh, and Starling pay interest on account balances.
The fact is Apple Pay support is possible - and apparently at a cost that is not prohibitive.
I use Apple Pay all the time and this is the only Revolut enhancement I’m interested in - I couldn’t care less about mobile phone insurance to be honest.
They can do currency exchange (via their partnership with TransferWise.) with outbound transfers, but you cannot hold currencies other than GBP with your current account at Starling Bank.
Starling are using VC money + overdraft/business loan fees to offer interest on account balance. In addition, due to the eMoney regulatory structure, :R: puts customer funds in a segregated client account, and therefore cannot use customer deposits for overdraft/business lending (and therefore generate a return to pay interest for customer deposits.).
If you want a return on your cash, better use an investment account in a S&S ISA.
Lack of Apple Pay support should not be on a technical or costs level. Certification process with Apple takes a long time (See: MFi Programme, …) and that’s the hold-up.
N26 made it official on their website that it is coming to at least some countries, but in case with Revolut everything is was rumours with hardly any evidence. He said, she said and the result is obvious.
I received a message in the app that Revolut has become their own card issuer replacing Paysafe. Is this a sign that Apple Pay is coming soon? Revolut has always insisted that this was the major obstacle for Apple Pay support.
