On Tuesday, Apple Pay has officially launched its new payment service in the United Kingdom. However, on its first day, millions of customers were reportedly disappointed as some of UK's biggest banks failed to join the scheme; thus, customers were unable to use the Apple Pay service, a CNet report said.
Apple's pay-to-phone service reportedly went live this week, nine months after the company first launched it in the U.S. However, the report noted that two companies, HSBC and Lloyds, apparently do not support the Apple Pay application, which left customers frustrated.
According to the same CNet report, HSBC will be included in the Apple Pay app later this month along with FirstDirect, while the Lloyds Banking Group, composed of Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, will reportedly be supported in autumn.
Barclaycard announced via the company's Twitter account its plan to support Apple Pay in the future. "We are really excited about the launch of Apple Pay and will bring Barclays debit cards and Barclaycard credit cards to Apple Pay in future."
Daily Mail UK atrributed the "delays" in Apple Pay support from major bank partners to an alleged technical glitch, which was vehemently denied by the banks. According to Daily Mail UK, Apple Pay will only work in conjunction with Apple Watch, iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6. In order to use the service, users simply need their iPhones or Watch scanned until they are verified.
"Apple Pay's launch is certainly good news for the UK. What has always been a struggle is for Apple Pay and the competitors to build a large enough ecosystem of merchants and bank partners in order to enable immediate adoption. While it is not clear why HSBC has decided not to support Apple Pay's UK launch, it rings alarm bells as consumers often have a 'now or never' approach to new technologies, easily deciding not to adopt for a long time if it is cumbersome to do so at the beginning," said Pinar Ozcan, Assistant Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School as quoted in the report.
Tuesday's Apply Pay launch should also include some of the UK's famous banks, including both credit and debit cards providers such as MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank, American Express, Mastercard and Visa cards. All these banks were earlier announced by Apple as partners when it officially presented the pay-to-phone payment scheme during the World Wide Developers Conference this year, according to CNet.
