Apple Pay may have come to Greece, but it is of little practical value for Greeks as local banks have closed their doors to the digital wallet by Apple.
If a customers with an account at a Greek bank attempts to link his debit card to the Apply Pay application, he receives the following message:
Greek banks simply do not support the Apple Pay application.
According to website insider.gr, the reasons for the application “incompatibility are two:
1. The “tokenization” technology, ie the technology for making payments by mobile phone. No Greek bank has yet implemented this technology to support such payments. Unique exception is Alpha Bank’s Alpha Wallet, however, even this is not ready to “welcome” Apple Pay, as the bank should upgrade the technology she uses to her own application.
2. The second reason is business-related: the “very high commission demanded by Apple for transactions through the digital wallet.” As bankers explain, it currently holds a 1.5-2% commission for the use of plastic money in POS and online stores, which is borne by the trader. This card is shared by the issuer of the card (the issuer, the bank), the acquirer, the POS provider and the card format (Visa / Mastercard).
Citing the same banking sources, the website writes that “Apple asks for Apple Pay transaction fee which is equal to the commission that is already in place, making the co-operation with Greek banks very expensive.
If one considers the very low penetration rate of iOS mobile devices in the Greek market – 9% vs. 91% for Android devices – it is clear that domestic banks are not … in a hurry to co-operate with Apple, insider.gr notes.
However, Praxia Bank plans to release debit cards that will be compatible with Apple Pay this autumn and to work with Google Pay when it comes to Greece. British bank Revolut and German N26 already support Apple Pay, and Greeks in possession of cards from these two banks can add these two banks in Apply Pay digital wallet and make their transactions via POS devices supporting “non-touch” transactions in Greece.
PS and if Greek banks do not support Apple Pay we can still bypass the problem by linking the digital wallet to our apples farm…. Ok, just kidding.
There are many comments between Apple Pay and local banks but i don’t understand why there is not explanation/comment from local banks. Maybe they will support on july maybe they will never support! I think reporters should ask them.