Apple

The details on how Apple Pay will work when it lands in the UK have been revealed on a website aimed at merchants. "If you accept contactless payment today, you're likely able to accept Apple Pay without any changes," Apple reassures vendors. If you don't currently have a contactless payment-capable point of sale terminal it provides guidance as to how to go about getting hold of one.

As expected, the majority of vendors won't be able to accept payments above £20, although this policy comes with caveats. For the most part, contactless payments are capped at £20 in the UK, but the cap is set to rise to £30 in September 2015.


There is also the possibility that some new vendors will have newer contactless terminals, which will allow customers to pay in increments of more than £20. "Apple Pay allows your customers to make easy and secure contactless payments at any amount. If your payment terminal or payment provider doesn’t support the latest network specifications, as with contactless debit and credit cards today, your customers might need to insert their card if the transaction amount is over £20," explains the company. "To accept Apple Pay for transactions over £20, your payment terminal must be capable and configured properly, and your payment provider needs to support the latest network contactless specifications."

Basically, this means a vendor's hardware must have been properly updated in order to support a technology called Consumer Device Cardholder Verification Method, or CDCVM. If this is the case, then customers will be able to use their iPhones or Apple Watches to purchase anything from a coffee to a weekly shop for a family of four with a single tap.