Canadian Android Pay Users Can Now Take American Express
While Visa once made great hay while the sun shined on the lack of coverage American Express often had, there are some signs that the field is narrowing a bit. One of the latest came from Canada, where Android Pay recently began to take American Express as part of its mobile payment operations.
Android Pay has actually been available in Canada starting at the end of May, so it’s actually not too big a gap between “when it was available at all” and “when it started taking American Express.” Originally pegged for a release date of “later this summer”, which it appears to have kept with great gusto given that summer only started a little over a week ago, this move is just part of a larger set of moves to give Canadians more access to the Android-based mobile payment system.
There are some holdouts as yet, reports note, particularly Royal Bank and TD. Yet those who have had the opportunity to try it out say that it’s working every bit as well as any other option in the field. Cited for its ease of use and setup—as well as its release so close to the upcoming Canada Day weekend—the end result should be a welcome one for users in the region.
It’s easy to say that Android Pay should have launched with support for American Express—it’s right up there as a major credit alternative alongside Visa and Mastercard—but with so little lag between the launch and the new support, it’s hard to be that put out. The inconvenience here would be minor at best, and with the option now in place, there’s really nothing stopping those Android Pay users from stepping in.
While it’s possible that Android Pay may have lost a few impatient early adopters, it’s safe to say that the roughly one month’s lag between launch and formal support really wouldn’t cost that much traffic. Still, with American Express support in place, it’s just opened up full support from the widest branch of potential users.