The slow rolling out of Tap to Pay on iPhone continues with Apple announcing its availability in eight more countries across Europe.
Tap to Pay on iPhone is the feature that lets one iPhone user pay another just using their phones, instead of needing separate card readers like Zettle. It’s chiefly meant to help small business users, and was launched in the US in May 2022.
Since then it has come to the UK and France in 2023, Japan in May 2024, and then five further countries in October 2024. Now Apple has announced that the feature is available from today in these eight countries:
- Belgium
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Denmark
- Greece
- Iceland
- Luxembourg
- Malta
Tap to Pay on iPhone requires the participation of payment platforms in the local countries. Apple’s announcement details 17 such platforms, including Stripe, Adyen, and Worldline.
Apple says that Tap to Pay on iPhone works in these countries with contactless credit and debit cards from major vendors such as American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa. In Belgium, Bancontact is available with the Axepta and Viva platforms, while Denmark has Dankort with Nexi and Surfboard Payments.
“As more and more consumers are tapping to pay with digital wallets and credit cards,” Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said at the 2022 launch in the US, “Tap to Pay on iPhone will provide businesses with a secure, private, and easy way to accept contactless payments and unlock new checkout experiences using the power, security, and convenience of iPhone.”
Recently, Intuit QuickBooks rolled out support for Tap to Pay on iPhone, in the US. It’s intended to enable small and medium-sized businesses to not only take in-person payments, but then record those details in QuickBooks.
