Apple Pay is Magic, We Hate Magic?

An ode to Apple Pay everywhere — except in the U.S.

Sometimes I feel like in the U.S. it’s hard to recognize just how profound of an experience Apple Pay is, as a consumer. That’s because while the numbers suggest a fairly high level of retail penetration, and usage seems to be increasing nicely, it’s not ubiquitous. To fully understand the magic of Apple Pay,¹ you have to go to a country where it is truly everywhere.

Over the summer, my family spent a couple weeks in Denmark. The only time I think I recall pulling out my credit card was at a hotel to check-in. And, to be honest, I’m not even sure I did it then! I’m just stretching my brain to try to think about when I would have used one. Every single place, from restaurants, to bars, to cafes, to shops, to taxis, accept mobile payments.

We also spent a bunch of time in the UK, where mobile payments are not quite as widespread, but it’s pretty close. And it seems to have made a huge leap in just the past two years. Honestly, the biggest problem I had was with the black cabs, which clearly just lie that their credit card machines aren’t working, in order to get paid in pounds. This is a known issue. And it’s really pronounced because again, basically everywhere else takes mobile pay.

To people who don’t live in the U.S., this all sounds mundane. Or worse, silly. That’s because not only has the U.S. process of swiping a credit card been out of date in Europe and elsewhere for years thanks to far earlier adoption of cards with chips, they’ve had tap-and-pay (“contactless”) for a while. This means not only do you not have to swipe your card, you don’t have to do the whole-chip-and-pin thing either.² You just hold your card up to a reader and you’re off. One of my credit cards in the U.S. has this functionality. I’ve used it exactly once in the U.S. Because I’ve only found exactly one place — a random hotel shop in Arizona — where it was enabled on the card reader.

Anyway, this tap-and-pay functionality sounds similar to mobile pay because it is, at least in process. It’s holding up a card to the reader instead of your phone. The phone is the better way to do this because you likely already have your phone in your hand anyway.³ And this is important because the true key of mobile pay, in my mind, is the aggregate amount of time saved not pulling out your wallet, and then your card.

Your phone becomes a magic wand; the invisible magic is paying people.

Again, you only truly realize this in places where mobile pay is ubiquitous. Because you realize how often you actually execute the process of paying for something in a given day. And once you’re a few days into using mobile pay and gliding through life, you only realize how insane the “old way” of doing things is when you are forced to pull out your wallet. Like an animal.

In some ways, it’s a bit scary. With mobile pay it is so seamless to pay for things that you start to lose touch with the reality of money. Because no money is literally changing hands, and again, unlike with a credit card, the whole process is happening so fast, it’s like you’re just playing a game.⁴ Beep.

But my god, is it just an amazing experience.⁵ Especially in an environment like a pub, where you’re not waiting an extra 2–3 minutes each time a bartender has to take your cash, head back to the register, make change, and come back. Or worse, take your card. Wait for the card terminal to call up their system. Wait for a receipt to be printed. Come back with a receipt handed to you on a disgusting plushy germ board so you can sign — SIGN! You could write literally anything and no one would notice — take your card back and hand it back. It’s not just insane, it’s barbaric.

Anyway, I look forward to full ubiquity of Apple Pay and the like in the U.S.⁶ I fully expect it by no later than 2035.

¹ And I’m going to use Apple Pay largely as a stand-in for all the mobile payment solutions — Google Pay, Samsung Pay, etc — because I’m an iPhone user. It’s also clearly the one of those with the most traction, right now.

² And don’t even get me started on chip-and-signature — the ridiculous, and ridiculously less secure U.S. variety.

³ None of this mentions the even more streamlined Apple Watch ability, of course.

⁴ And now with Apple Card out there, all of this more pronounced. It’s just a very well done product and offering.

⁵ And has been, five years running!

⁶ It still feels like this is a drastically under-reported huge avenue for Apple.