The iOS based mobile payments system will be making the leap north from the United States this year.
According to recent reports in the Wall Street Journal, Apple Pay is preparing to launch in a new market before the end of 2015, as it gets itself ready to step north into Canada for a November roll out.
The mobile payments service is already available in the United States, but it has yet to head anywhere else.
iOS device users in other countries may have been waiting to be able to use Apple Pay, but since it was first launched in October 2014, it has been available exclusively in the United States. Now, it looks as though it will become available in other countries, or at least one more, as it will be opening up in Canada this year. Six of the major banks in Canada have been reported to be in talks with Apple with regards to its wireless, contactless mobile payments system.
Despite the fact that Apple Pay is associated with higher fees, it does look as though Canadian banks are ready to support it.
The banks with which Apple has been discussing its mobile payments include: TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, CIBC, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the National Bank of Canada. These are some extremely influential institutions over the Canadian marketplace, when it is taken into account that they make up more than 90 percent of all bank accounts in the country.
These banks have indicated that they are prepared to support the smartphone based payments services from Apple, regardless of the fact that there have been some serious concerns expressed about higher fees and even some security problems.
The country is virtually ready, already, with the technology and infrastructure that would be required or the implementation of Apple Pay, as a vast number of the country’s businesses and retailers have already implemented the type of contactless terminals that would be needed to make the service work for iPhone (and Apple Watch) users. The country was among the first to broadly adopt chip-and-PIN tech as well as credit card NFC technology based tap-and-pay terminals.
According to InstaMed, approximately 20% of consumers have unpaid medical bills. This is largely due to confusion regarding the payment process. InstaMed believes that this problem will continue to grow as more consumers enroll in high deductible health insurance plans. Resolving confusion concerning the payment process is becoming a priority in the health care field and mobile payments may be able to introduce some simplicity to the process that will alleviate this problem, to some extent.