Apple Pay enters Estonian market
Visa card holders in Estonia as well as in 12 other European countries will be able use Apple Pay starting Wednesday. The payment system is currently supported by online banks Monese, Revolut, and N26.
Apple Pay is officially supported in Estonia via online banks Monese, Revolut and N26 starting Wednesday, Monese’s head of communications, Katrin Tibar, told BNS. Monese is offering Apple Pay in 13 new markets, and in a total of 27 European countries.
Apple Pay works with the kind of contactless payment terminals already widely used, Visa said.
Approximately 90 percent of sales points in Estonia have already been equipped with contactless card payment terminals, with a view to get to 100 percent coverage by 2020.
With Apple Pay and the Visa Token Service security solution, people can use their iPhone and Apple Watch just as they have been using their bank cards until now. Using them, no account details will be disclosed, which makes should make shopping significantly more secure, Henning Holtan, head of Visa’s Nordic and Baltic region, said in a press release.
While credit or debit cards are used via the Apple Pay application, the physical card numbers are stored neither on the smart device nor on Apple’s servers. Instead, Visa Token Service creates a unique account number for the device, and each purchase is authorized with a one-off unique dynamic security code.
If an Apple Pay user’s iPhone is stolen, for example, they can immediately deactivate their digital account number through the bank, without having to block or swap their physical Visa card.
