Some South African Banks now support Apple Pay for the first time

Apple Pay Japan Big (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Apple Pay is now live for a number of South African banks.
Discovery, Nedbank, and Absa customers are good to go.

A number of South African banks are offering support for Apple Pay as of today. At the time of writing, it appears that Discovery, Nedbank, and Absa customers are the lucky ones today.

As noted by MacRumors, Apple did say that it would be bringing Apple Pay to South Africa at some point in 2021 and that has now happened – so long as you're using one of the three banks that are good to go.

Apple Pay has just gone live in South Africa 🚀 🌍

So far it looks like @Discovery_SA and @Nedbank cards are supported.Apple Pay has just gone live in South Africa 🚀 🌍

So far it looks like @Discovery_SA and @Nedbank cards are supported.— Alastair Hendricks (@ali_hen) March 30, 2021 March 30, 2021

Use Apple Pay on the App Store to buy apps and games, or within apps to pay for a ride, a pizza delivery, or a new pair of sneakers — with just a touch or a glance. You can also use Apple Pay for a subscription to Apple Music, Apple News+, and Apple Arcade. Or for upgraded iCloud storage and other Apple services.

Users can add their cards to the Wallet app on their iPhone and then also use it via their Apple Watch, Mac, and iPad as well. Apple Pay has become hugely popular since its debut in 2014 and is now available in a huge number of countries. The list of countries supporting Apple Pay continues to grow as more and more banks come online.

In the United States and looking for a credit card supporting Apple Pay? No problem, here's a list of the best Credit Cards with Apple Pay support.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.