ApplePay anecdotes

So I almost ran into the AppleWatch ApplePay, ran out of battery fail at mignight on Wednesday.

However before I went through the barriers to the overground train I discovered my last train had gone. Between there and the tube my AppleWatch ran out of juice! Lucky I had not swiped in!

Therefore I had a chance to use ApplePay on the iPhone 6 Plus. I didn't realise the NFC field would activate it, so I opened Passbook and fiddled for a while, as I couldn't work out how to make the card ready.

So I just placed it on the contactless reader on the gate and put my finger on the scanner. It took a while and was rather cumbersome, but it did work, and on the other end too.

Love the AppleWatch ApplePay tibe/overground/tfl experience, but I shall be avoiding doing it on my phone whete possible.

Setting up new ApplePay card

After HSBC failed to launch ApplePay, I opened a Santander mastercard account. Today I got back from holiday and setup & activated my new credit card.

Pre-ApplePay, because it was a new card; I did a PIN transaction, then a contactless transaction, and only then did I add it to passbook.

Adding to iPhone Passbook was seamless, adding to AppleWatch, slightly more difficult. To add to AppleWatch you have to go via the AppleWatch app on the iPhone. On adding the Santander card, it did not appear on the AppleWatch, even after making it default.

An iPhone reboot did not resolve the issue.

Then I tried turning the AppleWatch off and on again. And just like that; it suddenly appeared on the AppleWatch. 

I then tried paying with the double click AppleWatch ApplePay - frictionless, wahoo!

Hidden feature for ApplePay in AppleWatch!

Quick post; just discovered you can double tap the side button on AppleWatch - the one that usually brings up friends/favourites/contacts, and you have your ApplePay card ready and active immediately.

OMG so convenient, this is the killer feature. No more navigating to Passbook, or using Siri to "Open ApplePay".