Dan Pražák The Apple Pay payment service has experienced unprecedented success since its debut on the Czech market. Even the banks themselves stated shortly after the launch that they did not expect such great interest from clients. But although the functioning of Apple Pay itself can hardly be faulted, there is one area that is closely related to the service and would deserve significant improvement.
I know virtually no one in my area who would complain about Apple Pay. On the contrary, the majority praises paying with an iPhone or Apple Watch and especially welcomes the possibility to leave the wallet and debit/credit cards at home and take only the phone to the store. But this is where the problem arises, not so much because of the absence of payment terminals at merchants, but because of ATMs, which have various restrictions.
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Unfortunately, the rule that Apple Pay can be used wherever you can get by with a card still does not apply. When you go out into the city with only an iPhone and the vision that it will serve as a substitute for a payment card, you can quickly be misled. Of course, it is quite understandable that, for example, you will not be able to pay for an ice cream bought at a stand on the square through a contactless terminal and you will therefore have to withdraw cash. And that is often the problem.
Banks are gradually preparing for the contactless era
Although ATMs with the possibility of contactless withdrawal are constantly increasing in the Czech Republic, there are still relatively few of them. In smaller cities, it is often almost impossible to come across such an ATM, which I personally have a lot of experience with. As it appears from the survey of the server Aktuálně.cz, over 1900 ATMs are now equipped with the mentioned technology, which is about a third of the ATM network in the Czech Republic. But they are mainly located in big cities and in shopping centers. And so far only six banks offer them - ČSOB, Česká spořitelna, Komerční banka, Moneta, Raiffeisenbank, Fio banka and Air Bank.
But even if you come across a contactless ATM, it does not necessarily mean that you will be able to withdraw money from it using Apple Pay. While some banks only support Mastercard cards for contactless withdrawals, others allow withdrawals only for clients of certain banks. The problem also arises in the case of Komerční banka, which does not yet support Apple's service at its ATMs at all. After all, this is exactly why we asked the press department and received the following response:
"We are currently finalizing the setup of contactless withdrawals for classic payment cards at our ATMs. We plan to deploy the option of withdrawal via Apple Pay during August," Komerční banka's press spokesman Michal Teubner revealed for Jablíčkář.
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Currently, three of the six banking institutions that support Apple Pay - Česká spořitelna, Moneta and Air Bank - offer withdrawals using an iPhone or Apple Watch at their ATMs. During August, Komerční banka will join them. In contrast, mBank uses the ATMs of all other banks, so its clients can also use those that already support contactless withdrawals.
Of course, it is worth mentioning that Apple is not to blame for the situation this time, but rather the banking houses. In short, they are not yet ready for the new contactless era. The time has not yet come when we can leave the physical card and cash at home and take only the iPhone or Apple Watch with us. Hopefully, Apple Pay will soon become a full-fledged replacement for payment/debit cards, and we will be able to withdraw from all ATMs, among other things, via smartphones.
Do you have any tips on how to find a contactless ATM?
He is also a problem with the fact that you can't use Apple Pay (or Google Pay) to deposit cash. I've already burned myself with it once. I went to deposit without a physical card and ended up having to go back for it anyway.
I can also log in to the ČSOB ATM via Apple Pay, but it is missing from the list.
Well, my bank is mBank and here in Poděbrady we have a contactless ATM for coins, so I can easily withdraw money there with my iPhone or Apple Watch.
The problem is somewhere else entirely, namely that the stall holder in the square does not take a card. I was recently in Sweden and the public toilets accepted the card. I managed all of Sweden with just my phone. Unfortunately, it is still unthinkable in the Czech Republic :-(
What else banks should change is opening the door without using a payment card. When I go to the city with only my phone and the ATM is outside the door, there is a problem of how to get to it...