Apple Pay launched Monday for those with a shiny new iPhone 6, allowing them to make digital copies of their existing credit cards and store them on their phone.
Forbes reported that Apple has partnered with major card issuers like Chase and Visa as well as retailers like Macy's and McDonald's to ensure that consumers can use their digital cards at more than 200,000 locations, with more on the way.
Before heading to the store, users take a picture of their credit card using the phone's built-in camera, and it's automatically uploaded and stored in the Passbook app.
When users are ready to make a purchase using Apple Pay, they'll simply open their Passbook app, choose the card they want to use, and tap the phone to the credit card terminal at the register. The terminal then reads the encrypted card information using a technology called near field communication (NFC). To authenticate the transaction, users skip the traditional signature and "sign" by pressing their finger to the new fingerprint sensor built into the iPhone 6.
Experts say the new system is more secure than the traditional plastic credit card system for a couple reasons.
Users' fingerprints are more secure than a signature, and there's no risk of the merchant or anyone else seeing the fingerprint as Apple keeps that information inside the phone at all times. Moreover, because the card is merely a digital copy of an existing credit card, it is still subject to all the same protections as its plastic counterpart. If you lose the phone, you can either erase its contents from your desktop computer using Apple's "Find My Phone" app, cancel the card through the issuing bank, or both.
In addition to the new iPhone 6, Apple Pay also works on the new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3. For those that don't have the new iPads or the iPhone 6, Apple Pay will be available early next year through the newly announced Apple Watch, which is also equipped with NFC technology.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.