With Apple Pay, iPhone and Apple Watch can replace debit or credit cards. Simply holding the device up to the terminal initiates the payment process.
Apple's payment service was introduced in the USA in October 2014. Now Apple Pay is finally coming to Germany. Tim Cook announced this when the quarterly figures were published in July. He did not give an exact launch date at the time. Nevertheless, it should start soon, as Apple has already published a list of partners. Apple's banking partners include Deutsche Bank, Hypo Vereinsbank, Hanseatic Bank, Fidor, Comdirect, O2 Banking, N26, bunq, boon, Vimpay and Edenred. Visa, MasterCard + Maestro and American Express are also involved. But what about Sparkasse and DKB?
project "Diamond"
If recent rumors are to be believed, customers of both banks will have to wait even longer. According to a report, Sparkasse is working on the "Diamond" project. This includes the implementation of Apple Pay in the bank's general offering. Since Sparkasse only does two major updates a year, there are two possible dates for 2019. "Release 19.0" is planned for April and "Release 19.1" for November 2019. According to the report, Apple Pay is more likely to launch in the second update. For Sparkasse customers, that would mean another year of waiting. At DKB, on the other hand, things are moving faster. According to current rumors, the launch of Apple Pay is planned for April 2019.
As always, please note that these are rumors and not confirmed information. Apple Pay payments are possible at any NFC-enabled payment terminal in stores - if it supports contactless payments.
