Apple Pay comes to Axis Bank credit cards: What changes and how can you pay?

According to fresh market updates, If you have an Axis Bank credit card on the Visa or Mastercard network, you will now be able to add it to Apple Wallet and pay using your iPhone or Apple Watch. So, instead of taking out your physical card and tapping it at the payment machine, you can simply use your Apple device.

Over the next few weeks, one can make seamless payments across merchants in stores, in-apps and online using their iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad enabling convenience and flexibility in how they transact.

So, which cards can be used, how do you add one to Apple Wallet, and what actually happens when you make a payment?

Which Axis Bank credit cards can you use?

For now, Apple Pay is available for Axis Bank credit cards issued on the Visa and Mastercard networks.

That means Axis Bank credit cards on other networks, including RuPay, are not part of the current rollout. Debit cards are additionally not covered at this stage.

Axis Bank is the first Indian bank to offer Apple Pay to its customers.

How do you add your credit card to Apple Pay?

You can add an eligible Axis Bank credit card either through the Axis Bank mobile banking app or directly through Apple Wallet.

Detailed India-specific steps for adding the card have not yet been shared. The process is anticipated to broadly follow the usual Apple Wallet flow, where a user adds an eligible card and completes the required verification before using it for payments.

Can you use Apple Pay while shopping online?

Axis Bank says Apple Pay can be used for payments at stores, in apps and online. It will work across iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad depending on where you are paying, while backing for Mac is anticipated later. Is Apple Pay like UPI?

Not really.

The easiest way to understand the difference is to look at where the money comes from.

With Apple Pay in India right now, you are using an eligible Axis Bank credit card through your Apple device. The purchase is charged to that credit card and will show up in your card statement.

UPI, on the other hand, is primarily used to make payments directly from a linked bank account.

So Apple Pay does not replace your UPI app. It gives you another way to use your Axis Bank credit card.

What happens to your credit card rewards?

They continue.

Axis Bank says customers will keep get the rewards and benefits available on their existing card when they pay through Apple Pay.

In other words, adding your card to Apple Wallet does not give you a new card, a separate credit limit or a different rewards programme.

The same Axis Bank credit card is being used in the background. The card’s existing rules on rewards, benefits and eligible transactions will keep apply.

Does the shop get your credit card number?

No. This is one of the key differences in how Apple Pay processes the payment.

Your actual credit card number is not handed over to the merchant when you make a payment through Apple Pay.

Instead, Apple Pay uses a separate device-specific number for the transaction. The actual card number is neither stored on Apple servers nor shared by Apple with the merchant, as stated by the firm.

For an Axis Bank credit cardholder, as a result, the change is fairly simple: the card you already use can now be further noted to Apple Wallet and used through your iPhone or Apple Watch wherever Apple Pay is supported.