A popular new payment service is now also available for the 46 million Girocard customers of the savings banks. The savings bank group announced on Tuesday that the service is available “immediately”.
- The Apple Pay payment service is also popular in Germany.
- At the 373 savings banks , the payment system was previously only available in connection with a credit card.
- Now the service is also available for the 46 million Girocard users .
Munich - The German Savings Banks and Giro Association thus confirmed a corresponding report by Merkur.de on August 13 *. Users also posted screenshots on Twitter on Tuesday morning. So far , the Sparkassen group has officially announced that Apple Pay will be launched in late summer. The calendar beginning of autumn falls on September 23 this year. The service is now available almost four weeks earlier.
With Apple Pay , the US group is tapping into another large target group. According to the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV), around 46 million girocards are in use nationwide. This makes the savings bank card the most widely used means of payment in Germany.
So far, Sparkasse customers have only been able to use the Apple * payment system in conjunction with a Visa or Mastercard credit card. Since Tuesday (August 25th) this has also been possible with the Girocard , which is still known to many consumers as an EC card.
With the integration of the Girocard in Apple Pay , the savings banks made "a decisive contribution to the rapid establishment of mobile payment" in Germany, said the President of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association Helmut Schleweis . The Apple manager Jennifer Bailey , who is responsible for the payment service , said they were delighted to be able to combine “the Girocard so popular in Germany” with Apple Pay. This offers an “even safer way” to pay with the iPhone or Apple Watch .
Apple Pay now at Sparkassen: later start in Germany
Apple had only introduced its payment system in Germany in mid-December 2018. At the start, Deutsche Bank , HVB , Comdirect and the now insolvent payment service provider Wirecard supported Apple Pay. In the United States had Apple introduced the service already in 2014 and then quickly rolled him around the world.
With Apple Pay , customers can use their iPhone and Apple Watch * to pay at the checkout as with a contactless card. A so-called NFC chip is used in the iPhone * or Apple Watch *. Contactless payment has received a significant boost in Germany due to the spread of the corona virus .
For pears and for eggs. And that for everyone. Sparkasse with Apple Pay - now the first with a girocard (debit card). https://t.co/6BkyUn4QCY #EiwieEinfach #ganznormal #applepay # Applepayfüralle pic.twitter.com/52JUB1R7E8
- Sparkasse (@sparkasse) August 25, 2020Apple Pay and Girocard: Small restrictions at the beginning
However, there are still minor restrictions at the start. Girocard customers cannot yet use Apple Pay when shopping on the Internet. The service for Girocard customers is not yet available abroad either. From the beginning of 2021, however, shopping on the web should be possible, announced the savings bank association.
Contactless payment has received a significant boost in Germany due to the spread of the corona virus .
With Apple Pay , users approve the transactions via the iPhone face recognition Face ID or the fingerprint scanner. In contrast to Google Pay, the iPhone manufacturer's payment system also works without an Internet connection. The transaction is processed in its own high-security chip. At Google, the token is generated in the cloud.
According to Apple , the payment service is growing rapidly. "Sales and the number of transactions from Apple Pay have more than doubled compared to the previous year," Apple CEO Tim Cook * said at an investor conference in January. In total, “over 15 billion transactions” would be processed via Apple Pay for the year as a whole. With a market value of over two trillion dollars, Apple is the most valuable company in the world.
Editor's note: In the first edition of this article, the headline stated that the new payment system was available for "42 million Girocard payers". This is wrong. In fact, according to the Sparkassenverband - as reported in the text - there are a total of 46 million Girocard users. We ask to apologize the mistake. * Merkur.de is an offer from the Ippen Digital Network.
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Marijan Murat