Comment by plorkyeran

I use and love Apple Pay, but it's not ideal for every situation. The biggest flaw is that it requires waving your expensive phone in the vicinity of the reader.

Apple Pay is more risky than contactless cards. There is a risk of dropping your phone or it being stolen out of your hand. I only use it in controlled indoor environments, like at a retail store, where I have enough personal space to feel comfortable getting out my phone. If I want to pay at e.g. a stall in a crowded market, I'm using my card.

EDIT: hmm, actually the screenshots on Apple.com show a card with a chip, so how come contactless doesn’t work? Deliberately disabled?

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Wearing my ecology hat, you could argue if barely any of their customers will use it for contactless, then it’s a waste of resources manufacturing a chip.

(Of course there are plenty of other areas of Apple’s business where they thoroughly undermine this - persuading people to buy wireless in-ear headphones, iPads that have so much glue inside when you ‘replace’ the battery they just give you a new device because it’s too much hassle etc.)

Or… maybe insisting on using Titanium means it’s an PITA adding a chip as well, versus plastic? (At least one of my UK cards claims “made from 100% recycled plastic” now).