Last week the first Australian bank to support Apple Pay was ANZ, expanding the mobile wallet beyond American Express. It now appears the same could happen in Canada, if the news received by an anonymous tipster is credible.
The word our little birdie is hearing is “Apple Pay Canada will be expanding to Visa and MasterCard by May 10, barring any unforeseen circumstances.” Back in February, MasterCard’s 2016 road map leaked and it noted Apple Pay support in Canada this year.
As for Canadian bank support, we’re told at least two of the ‘Big 5’ banks will support Apple Pay. As for when we’ll hear an announcement, our tipster claims Apple will mention something about the expansion this week, possibly as soon as the next 24-48 hours.
We’ve seen numerous clues emerge that suggest Apple Pay will be supported by Canadian banks, but the question is when:
Earlier today, we reported Canada’s credit unions plans to announce their own mobile wallet platform, which will not be Apple Pay.
Again, take this claim with a grain of salt—let’s wait and see what happens in the next week or so. When we first heard from readers ANZ was set to launch support for Apple Pay in Australia, many doubted the tip, including ourselves.
However, as we all know now, that turned out to be true. Let’s see if this one pans out or not. If you were to place bets, which of the big banks do you think will support Apple Pay first? Our hunches would be TD and CIBC, based on what we’ve seen so far.
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cautious optimism… as always… *sigh*
Yah, I agree but I hope it is true!
One of the banks better be cibc, if it’s not I will change my bank to whoever does support applepay in a heartbeat and I will never look back
Don’t play with my heart GARY
Well I hope it happens. As for me? I signed up and received my Canadian Amex Card ages ago… Would love to actually use Apple Pay more often with my main bank cards.
If Scotiabank is one of them, would that mean Tangerine is as well?
Scotiabank will never be one of them 🙂
Even tho Tangerine is owened by scotiabank, they make their own decesions
I currently have Tangerine, TD & BMO. I have been meaning to drop either TD or BMO, which ever one does not announce it will get dropped without a thought.
Is this “all” MasterCards or just those issued by big banks? I ask because I have a Capital One MasterCard.
as do I, I hope we get it asap!
I know that TD has Visa.
Once at least one back comes on board, they’ll all follow, it’ll be just a matter of time before they see how many people move their money to the competitor that’s supporting Apple Pay. Can’t wait! I truly hope this comes within the next two weeks!
This excites me. Scotiabank, you’d better not disappoint me.
I have CIBC, TD, Scotia and BMO. I hope I’m covered!
Can you make a weather forecast as well, since you are making predictions….
He can probably make a weather prediction!
But seeing that it’s Thursday and no announcement we may just have to wait for the banks to give in which could be a long time from now.
It’s sunny outside, and time to use Apple Pay!
But i am a TD bank customer!!!!!!!!
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Well I’m happy to eat humble pie! I really thought this was going to be another hopeless rumour. still a little disappointed that TD has only vague promises of “soon”
🙂
Yes, definitely sucks TD did not support out of the gate, we’ll have to wait a few more weeks.
Skeptical, but hopeful!
This is great and all, but studies have shown that once the Apple Pay novelty wears off, people stop using it. Over half of US consumers with Apple Pay enabled cards, use it no more than once a week. Since we all have to carry a wallet around still, I surmise that “tap” payments with debit and credit cards are more convenient for most.
Thing is, I’ve left my wallet at home. If I’m out for a stroll, I’ll often just take either my phone and keys, or sometimes even leave my keys at home and take simply my phone. Want to grab a light snack or a drink while I’m out? Apple Pay!
The added security and the fact that there is no real $100 tap limit is great. Bought a new camera lens from Henry’s with my iPhone, as well as hundreds of dollars of crap from Toys R Us with it.
Edit: I will say, I’ll still tap my credit card at certain times. For example, if it’s raining and I’m going through the Tim’s drive thru I don’t want to get my phone wet.
Leave your wallet at home? Youre supposed to carry your healtcard at all time you never know what can happen
They can’t deny you coverage in the ER if you happen to not have your health card on you. Besides, it’s not like I go every day without my health card. Just every once in a while it’s nice to not have my wallet on me!
You don’t have to carry your healthcard at all times. I ended up in hospital, unconscious, without my healthcard. They somehow figured it out. We live in Canada, they wont deny anyone treatment in an emergency.
The study with the US isn’t a deal breaker for me. Contact payments aren’t as pervasive there. I’d be more interested to see if the novelty wears off in places like Australia or the UK, where it is a standard form of payment.
I leave my AMEX at home because I don’t need it with me when making my purchases. If I lost my wallet, my AMEX card would still be at home. If I lost my iPhone, thieves can’t get into my phone because it’s password protected.
Honestly, knowing RBC the way I do, they’ll bring it in, it’ll happen, but they’ll be some extortionate new “service fee” to use it. You know, because somehow it’s more effort for the bank to process these types of transactions. You can use Apple Pay, but it’ll cost you $2 a transaction after the first three in a month.
Remember that poster in the old X-Files TV series: “I want to believe”? Same here. I will only believe it when it actually happens.
From the cards I have, it seems like that CIBC, Scotiabank and TD will support Apple Pay. All of the cards from these banks give me the same error “not eligible for Apple Pay”, as opposed to BMO error message “your issuer does not yet offer support”
I applied for an AMEX card just to have some fun with Apple Pay. There’re quite a few stores in Canada already using AP. But since AMEX pay back their bonus $ only once a year, I stopped using it after about 10 transactions. Now my Canadian Tires Option card gives me my “points” back just a few hours after my purchases (in CT$ you’ll say but…) So I’m also very curious to see if all brands of Mastercard will be usable…
Since RBC came out with their own “wallet” app, they will be the last ones to support Apple Pay.
When I tried to add my TD Access Card, “This Card Is Not Eligible for Apple Pay” was the error, which is different from the one before. I checked about a week ago and the error wouldn’t before pop up until it had asked for the security info. I feel like this is good news for TD Debit and Interact users!!
“if the news received by an anonymous tipster is credible.”
Anonymous as in “we don’t even know who provided us with that info, it could be totally fake”, or as in “it’s a credible source who prefers to stay anonymous (for obvious reasons)”?
I want to believe… but we’ve been let down so many times by “Apple Pay is launching soon” rumours… 🙁
This I’d like to know as well.. I’m skeptical because I don’t know why Apple would even announce this, so why even mention that part? There wasn’t anything in their newsroom when it expanded to Visa in Australia, so why would they mention anything about Visa/MC in Canada?
I’d like to know how credible this anonymous tipster is.
Given that the 24-48 hour window they predicted has come and gone, I’m starting to lose faith in this anonymous tipster…. That won’t stop me from dreaming of using it though… 🙁
An Apple announcement was doubtful in the first place. Like @xeronine992:disqus said, Apple never made official announcement before adding new banks/providers in countries that already have Apple Pay. They simply update the list of supported providers on their website, and that’s it. I don’t see why that would be different for Canada.
It may still happen, but I think the announcement would come directly from the banks and Visa/MC, not Apple.
it takes a bit more than just the banks to support this stuff. they are one piece in the puzzle.
What’s the big deal with credit cards? I pay with my old blackberry for more than two years and my S6 does it too and that’s already a year old. Apple doesn’t want to pay for transactions so why the banks should change that? Canada is a very hard market for banks and mobile phones. In face it’s like a third world country in terms of that
Is there any new information on ApplePay since the update 2 days ago
I tried to get some additional information from Gary (was curious if it was just some random anonymous “tip” or if they were actually credible at all). Didn’t get any response. He’s usually pretty good at responding, so I feel that’s a telling sign.
Also, prior to the Amex rollout it looked like Apple had made some connections to Amex, but Amex wasn’t adding cards to Apple Pay at the time so there were emails being sent that the card couldn’t be added at that time. I haven’t seen any such indication the day before the supposed “By May 10th” date.
I think this is just a pipe dream at this point.
I don’t see RBC doing it at least not anytime soon. They have their own mobile wallet app.
Looks like RBC fooled everybody!
Its happening. Just got a call from my folks in Toronto that there is a full page ad in the Toronto Star about ApplePay with Interac Debit. Plus, I just tried to add my Scotiabank Scene Debit card and got all the way through to the expiration date screen (never happened before with this debit card). However, it said the card could not be added at this time.
Sorry the pic isn’t right way up. Gotta get to work, and can’t figure out whats wrong.
Weird they’d post an ad in a paper when debit cards still can’t be added (oh and I just tried to add my Tangerine debit card and my Capital One MC without success).
P.S. I don’t have high hopes for the Tangerine debit card since it doesn’t support Interac Flash.
Thanks for posting the pic David!