Apple Pay, from today also in Italy: how it works

Apple Pay is the service of the Cupertino company that allows you to make payments directly through your smartphone, tablet, smartwatch and Mac

Apple Pay is available from today also in Italy. The news was announced several days ago and today Apple has officially launched the service for online payments in the Bel Paese. A novelty that will allow users of the bitten apple to make payments directly through the smartphone (using Apple Pay) without having to pull out the credit card.

For the moment, the service supports credit and debit cards of three banks: Unicredit, Boon and Carrefour Bank through the Visa and Mastercard circuits. In the coming months the support will be extended to other banks such as Mediolanum, Widiba, Fineco and all the most important banks in Italy. Apple Pay will be able to be used to make payments inside many commercial establishments: Apple Store, Carrefour, Auchan, Eurospin, Autogrill, Eataly, Mediaworld, OVS, Unieuro, just to name a few. Even in the case of commercial chains, in the coming months there will be news in this regard.

How Apple Pay works

The operation of Apple Pay is very similar to PayPal: the user can make purchases without having to pull out of the wallet the credit card.

The first step is to download from the App Store the Wallet application that allows you to register on your smartphone, smartwatch, tablet or MAC all the credit and debit cards that we want (the important thing is that they are in our name). Completed the first step, we will be ready to use Apple Pay to pay for groceries or to buy appliances.

To make the payment with the iPhone, you will need to bring the smartphone close to the POS (the electronic device that allows you to pay with a credit card inside the stores) and press on the Touch ID to confirm the purchase. The user's fingerprint is used by Apple as a security system to defend users from possible frauds. Before completing the purchase, you will also be able to choose which credit card to pay with.

Apple Pay can also be used to make online purchases, just select the service of the Cupertino company as a payment method. In this way, Apple Pay can also be used from the computer: on the latest version of the MacBook there is Touch ID in the Touch Bar of the keyboard.

On tablets and smartwatches the use of Apple Pay does not change: just bring the device close to the POS to make the transaction (on the Apple Watch instead of Touch ID you will have to confirm by pressing the side button twice).

Which devices to use Apple Pay on

Apple Pay is available for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, all Apple Watch models and with iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro. Macs must have the macOS Sierra version of the operating system installed.