Apple Pay has been officially launched in the U.K., nine months after it debuted in the U.S. As of today, Apple’s payments service will be available for use in over 250,000 sites across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. That makes it more widely available than when it was first introduced in the United States nine months ago.
At launch, Apple Pay is already supported in the following locations: Apple Store, Bill’s, Boots, BP, Costa, KFC, Le Pain Quotidien, Liberty, Lidl, M&S, McDonald’s, Nando’s, Post Office, Pret, Spar, Starbucks, Subway, The Co-operative Food, Transport for London, Wagamama, and Waitrose. It’s coming soon to Costcutter, Dune, Eat, Five Guys, JD, New Look, Screwfix, and Wilko.
As for apps, Apple Pay’s launch partners in the U.K. include Addison Lee, Apple Store, Babylon, Dice, Etsy, Five Guys, Hotel Tonight, JD, Just Eat, LastMinute.com, Miss Selfridge, Mr & Mrs Smith, Top10, Topman, Topshop, Uncover, Vueling, YPlan, Zalando, and Zara.
Apple Pay will eventually be supported by all major British banks. The last hold-out, Barclays, confirmed on Tuesday that its debit card users and Barclaycard credit card customers will be able to use Apple Pay in the future. Barclays has to this point focused on its own bPay contactless payment system, but in a tweet the bank said it would support the system in 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.
— Barclays UK (@BarclaysUK) July 14, 2015
Still, Apple Pay’s foray into Britain hasn’t gone as smoothly as its makers might have hoped. HSBC Holdings, one of the largest banks in the Kingdom, said it was having technical problems that will lead to a two-week delay before its clients in the United Kingdom can sign up to the service.
Apple Pay works at participating retail stores and within apps that accept it. Because it requires NFC, it is only available for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus users, and Apple Watch users who have an iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, or 6 Plus. In-app Apple Pay purchases can be made with an iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus.
Apple is also rumored to be working on expanding the payments service to several other countries, including China and Canada.