Apple Pay Support Begins Rolling Out for Select Banks in South Africa

In January, MacRumors reported that Apple Pay was likely to launch in South Africa sometime this year. As expected, ‌Apple Pay‌ has now started to go live in the country for customers of a select number of banks.

apple pay contactless terminal
MacRumors readers and bank customers on Twitter report seeing prompts to add their cards to ‌Apple Pay‌. So far, it seems that only Discovery, Nedbank, and Absa customers are able to add their cards to Apple's Wallet app.


To add a card to ‌Apple Pay‌, customers should open the Wallet app, tap the plus button, and follow the on-screen instructions. It's important to note that banks must first add support for ‌Apple Pay‌. Attempting to add an unsupported bank card will result in a pop-up reading, "Your issuer does not yet offer support for this card."

Apple's South African website hasn't yet been updated to reflect ‌Apple Pay‌'s rollout in the country, which isn't unusual, as rollout seems to have just begun in the past few hours.

Apple first launched ‌Apple Pay‌ in 2014 in the United States, and in the years since, it's slowly expanded to more countries around the world. Last month, ‌Apple Pay‌ officially launched in Mexico.

(Thanks Grant, Pieter, and Ludolph!)

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Popular Stories

carplay next gen hero

RIP, CarPlay 2?

Sunday December 29, 2024 7:32 am PST by
Apple's website continues to state that the first vehicle models with next-generation CarPlay will "arrive in 2024." With less than three days remaining in the year, however, that timeframe is looking more and more unlikely. It would not be entirely Apple's fault if the stated 2024 target is missed, given that it is ultimately up to automakers to roll out the software in vehicles, but it is...
Apple Intelligence General Feature 2

Five Apple Intelligence Features Coming in 2025

Friday December 27, 2024 2:43 pm PST by
Even though iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2 added multiple Apple Intelligence features like Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools, and more, there are still new Apple Intelligence capabilities that we're waiting on. Apple has at least one more major Apple Intelligence update coming in 2025, and the functionality that we're expecting is outlined below. Priority Notifications Notification summaries...
apple tv plus teaser

Apple Teases Apple TV+ Surprise on January 4 and 5

Thursday December 26, 2024 10:35 am PST by
Apple this week began teasing some kind of upcoming Apple TV+ surprise that's set to happen on January 4 and January 5, telling customers to "stay tuned" and "save the date" in social media posts. Apple's images have a tagline that says "See for yourself," but it isn't clear what Apple has planned. Some users on Reddit have speculated that Apple might be planning to launch a promotion that...
New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

22 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 23, 2024 6:30 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Sudoku Apple News iOS 18

iOS 18.2 Added a New Game to Your iPhone

Saturday December 28, 2024 12:03 pm PST by
Starting with iOS 18.2, released earlier this month, Apple News+ subscribers in the U.S. have access to daily sudoku puzzles in the Apple News app. There are easy, moderate, and challenging difficulty levels for the daily puzzles. A scoreboard tracks your sudoku stats, including your total number of puzzles solved, fastest completion times per difficulty level, and more. Sudoku is the...
AirTag and Lavender iPhone

AirTag 2 Launching Next Year With These New Features

Tuesday December 24, 2024 8:35 am PST by
Apple is expected to release an AirTag 2 next year, and a few new features and changes have already been rumored for the item tracker. Below, we recap what to expect from the AirTag 2: The new AirTag is expected to be equipped with Apple's second-generation Ultra Wideband chip for longer range. The chip debuted last year in the iPhone 15 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and Apple said it...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Sunday December 22, 2024 8:09 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cites a source within Apple. The report said that iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that is capable of running iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro ...
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Expected Next Year: Here's What We Know

Monday December 23, 2024 4:18 am PST by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch sometime in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as...

Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
49 months ago
Nice to see the global expansion.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
davidventer Avatar
49 months ago

In about 4-6 years, Apple Pay will be accepted around the globs. And in about 6-10 years, Apple Pay may be accepted at every store besides the ones that do membership.
It’s already accepted around the globe. You can literally use it anywhere contactless / tap to pay / NFC terminals are used. The hold up is the fact that not all bank cards can be used through Apple Pay yet. But if you have an Apple Pay compatible card, you can use Apple Pay anywhere where contactless payment is accepted, even in countries where linking a local bank card to Apple Pay isn’t possible.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mccdyl001 Avatar
49 months ago
Surprising to see that two of South Africa's larger banks, FNB and Standard Bank, are not on board from day one. They like to tout that they're modern and in with the times, but it looks like they were caught napping at the wheel. Nice to see 1st world technology finally arriving on our shores (even if it took 6+ years to get here!)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Separo Avatar
49 months ago
Can confirm works with Nedbank cards ?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)