Apple Pay to Debut October 20th

It’s not just new paper-thin iPads we have to look forward to.

Apple has announced that starting Monday (October 20), iPhone 6 early adopters will be able to use Apple Pay, Apple’s very own NFC-based mobile payments service.

Apple is also in partnership with MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and more than 500 banks un the United States to bring credit and debit card support from these card networks.

Users can pay by putting a finger on the Touch ID (fingerprint reader embedded in the iPhone 6’s home button) and tapping the phone to a supporting retailer’s NFC terminal.

Apple Pay is not just limited to in-store retail. On Apple’s iPhone 6, the newly announced iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3s, in-app payments can be made with a finger scan from the Touch ID, effectively enabling one-touch online checkouts.

As for the question of security, payment card details are tokenized and assigned a Device Account number that’s walled off in the Apple device’s Secure Element limiting the points of unauthorized access.

According to point of sale provider, Clover’s Co-Founder John Beatty, there’s a marked interest in Apple Pay and mobile payments from both consumers and merchants.

“When the announcement came out, we received a huge number of contacts asking, ‘what does this mean for us, how do we accept it?’ Merchants want every possible consumer to be able to come into their store to buy and order and not have payments be a reason that they can’t do that. Clearly Apple showed a magical set of experiences and I think Apple’s consumer base is an interesting one that merchants want to serve,” Beatty said.