Apple Pay: how it works in store

Apple Pay is Apple's new mobile payment system launched a few weeks ago in the USA which works quite simply, but not everyone knows how to use it yet. Are the shopkeepers prepared? What should we answer to the question: 'ATM or card'? Here's the answers.

Apple Pay is a 'contactless' iPhone payment system available only in the United States. Pay is designed to protect your personal information. It does not collect transaction data that could lead back to you, and payment transactions remain private and shared only between the buyer, the store, and the buyer's bank.

Apple Pay is based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, allowing two nearby devices to communicate with each other wirelessly. In practice, just bring the iPhone 6 close to an enabled POS and authorize the transaction with your fingerprint on the mobile phone, avoiding having to take out the credit card.

But how does Apple Pay work in practice? Simply hold your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus close to the reader and authorize the payment with Touch ID. The iOS operating system will automatically use the credit card data (previously saved in the phone's internal memory) to proceed with the transaction, without having to take your card out of your pocket and type the secret PIN.

US users, however, complain that some retailers don't know how to use the service. The clerk has the task of asking for the credit or debit card, in common payments, and the customer who wants to pay with Apple Pay must choose "credit card" as the form of payment, then bring the iPhone 6 close to the POS holding his thumb on the Touch ID fingerprint reader and that's it. Within a few seconds the transaction will be authorized. If the cashier knows what Apple Pay is, then he is asked if he wants to pay with iPhone or Apple Watch (since 2015).

By the end of 2017, there will be 2 billion smartphone or tablet owners engaging in some form of mobile payment to purchase goods or services, according to a new report from Juniper Research, which expects the total number of users worldwide world will reach the threshold of 1.6 billion at the end of 2014.