Apple Pay is now making its way to a number of countries outside the US today. Reports said that the new feature has been seen rolling out to users in Ireland, Spain and Brazil. Some have even reported the feature in the U.K. However, this has not been officially confirmed yet.
Apple Pay is a sort of competitor to PayPal that debuted in the U.S. last year. It is a peer-to-peer payments service that works through the stock messaging app. Apple-Pay registered cards can be used to make payments with the service. Debit card transactions are free while credit card transactions are charged 3%.
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It isn’t yet known if cross-border payments are possible via Apple Pay right now. However, if it were possible, it would include huge charges. But since no other peer-to-peer payment does this yet, it might also be the case for Apple Pay.
Apple Pay was pushed to US users with iOS 11.2 in December. We’re not sure when the feature will roll out to these countries but it is safe to say that it will be sooner rather than later. After all, Apple wants that 3%, doesn’t it.
In the meanwhile, Google is busy streamlining its peer-to-peer payments with Google Pay. This week Google announced it will combine Android Pay and Google Wallet into a single interface under Google Pay. Android Pay already works in a number of countries across the globe. But with the arrival of Apple Pay, the expansion race will probably heat up.
