Three Things Canadians Should Know About Apple Pay

Apple pay is finally in Canada.

Can you use it? Will it benefit you? Below are answers to three common questions we’ve been hearing this month about Apple Pay.

Can I Use Apple Pay?

Apple recently unveiled a slew of new partners in Canada, including RBC and CIBC, as well as ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Financial. Other banks, including BMO and TD, intend to join the party very soon.

38% of Canadian smartphone users own iPhones, but you need something newer, such as a 6 or SE—older Apple devices do not have the pay function. The Apple Watch has Pay, though.

Will Apple Pay Change My Life?

No, not really. Anyone with a tap-ready credit or debit card will observe paying with your phone isn’t necessarily more convenient. However, it is more secure, demanding your fingerprint to confirm a purchase. It’s also similarly restricting, limiting payments to $100, with payments above that threshold requiring a passcode.

Apple Pay is simply your credit card on file within your phone and then the same NFC-enabled tap gesture you perform with your current plastic. Cool, but nothing special.

How Do I Activate Apple Pay?

This part is pretty simple. Go into Settings, then into Wallet & Apple Pay. Next, tap “Add Credit or Debit Card.” From there you can snap a photo of your card to its details to your device.

Apple Pay launched in the US this month and is quickly sweeping the nation (although some believe the company would have been wiser to launch in Canada first).

“The reaction to Apple Pay has been amazing,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We continue to add more Apple Pay ready banks, credit card companies and merchants, and think our users will love paying with Apple Pay.”

But Pay, which combines near-field communication technology with Apple’s Touch ID to enable mobile digital payments from iPhones, has other ambitions. It’s believed that Apple has bigger plans for the feature, according to a report from The Information, which claims that the world’s most valuable technology company has been having discussions with technology providers about utilizing Pay technology in other ways.

The Apple representatives have talked to technology providers like HID Global and Cubic, which enable secure access to buildings and transit fare systems, respectively, said people briefed on the discussions. Spokespeople for the companies declined to comment about any discussions with Apple, but executives there discussed how they could integrate their systems with the iPhone.

Apple, which faced criticism for not putting NFC in its products for years, is actively adding the technology to all of its mobile devices, including the iPad Mini 3 and iPad Air 2, which launched earlier this month.