Apple Pay greatly simplifies having to pay for services and products in the establishments we visit. But when do we need cash? Apple Pay also allows us to withdraw money from an ATM and all without carrying your credit card with us.
A card for each device and the magic of NFC
Thanks to Apple Pay we can move comfortably, and pay whatever we need, without having to carry the wallet with us. This is possible thanks to the number of shops and establishments that accept payments through contactless technology.
During the Apple Pay configuration process, the bank provides us with a virtual card connected to our account. This means that, in addition to our physical credit or debit card issued by our bank, we have a virtual card for our iPhone, another for our Apple Watch, etc.
The payment details of a physical card are stored in the chip of the same card. At the moment in which said physical card approaches the dataphone, the radio waves emitted are sufficient to power the card and allow it to issue the details of the same to formalize the payment.
Each of our devices with Apple Pay can identify us to our bank.
When we activate Apple Pay on our iPhone or Apple Watch what we do is that the NFC chip of our device emits the information of our card. What card? From the virtual card, linked to our account like the physical card, which we download when we configure Apple Pay on our phone or watch.
All of this leads us to something very important. Each of our devices contains a debit or credit card issued by our bank. And this is what we must take into account when thinking about withdrawing money from an ATM. More and more ATMs have an NFC reader, also called Contactless, so we can use our iPhone or Apple Watch to get money from them.
The process is as simple as go to the ATM, activate Apple Pay on our iPhone or Apple Watch and bring our phone or watch closer to the ATMβs NFC reader. Our bank will identify us in exactly the same way as if we were to insert our physical card into the machine and it will allow us to operate normally. This means, in a nutshell, that our iPhone or Apple Watch allows us to obtain cash almost anywhere in the territory.
Does anyone have experience withdrawing money from an ATM with the Apple Watch? (you can right?)
β π π»ββοΈ Jose Mendiola (@jose_mendiola) December 5, 2018
What if the ATM in question does not have NFC? We also have resources. It is true that it is something really unusual, but it is possible. The vast majority of banks offer the option of identifying ourselves at the ATM by SMS. This means that we can type in our telephone number, the entity sends us a message and, by entering the code that we have received at the ATM, it verifies that it is us and allows us to operate.
This system, depending on the entity, may either not be available at all, or have restrictions on the amounts we can withdraw. Even so, it offers us one more option in a case of need.
Having seen what we have seen, it is clear that carrying our cards on the iPhone or Apple Watch allows us much more than paying for a product quickly and safely. If necessary, we can access cash in a very comfortable way.