To pay with your iPhone instead of a physical card, add your credit/debit cards to the Apple Wallet app. At checkout, double-click the side button (or Home button) to bring up your card, authenticate with Face ID/Touch ID, and hold the top of your iPhone near the contactless reader.
Yes, you can tap a card on an iPhone in two main ways: customers can tap their contactless cards/devices on a merchant's iPhone using Tap to Pay on iPhone (requiring an app like Square or Stripe), and users can tap their own iPhone (with Apple Pay loaded) on compatible readers to pay, by double-clicking the side/home button and holding the top of the phone near the symbol.
With your eligible cards stored in the Wallet app on iPhone, you can use Apple Pay for secure, contactless payments in stores, restaurants, and more. Note: Apple Pay isn't available in all countries or regions.
Easy to use. To set up Tap to Pay on iPhone, enable it in the payment app of your choice. To accept a payment, open the app, enter the amount, and present your iPhone to your customer. To pay, the customer holds their card horizontally or places their device directly over the payment symbol.
No, Apple Pay and Apple Wallet aren't the same, but they work together: Apple Wallet is the app (your digital container) that stores your credit/debit cards, loyalty cards, tickets, and passes, while Apple Pay is the technology/service that uses those cards in the Wallet to make secure, contactless payments in stores, online, and in apps. Think of the Wallet as your physical purse and Pay as the tap-to-pay function.
To pay with your phone, set up a digital wallet like Apple Pay (iPhone) or Google Wallet/Pay (Android), add your debit/credit cards, ensure your phone's NFC is on, then simply unlock your phone and hold the back near a contactless payment terminal (look for the symbol) to tap and pay.
Apple Pay is a contactless payment solution using an Apple device, such as an iPhone or Apple Watch.
Set up pay contactless
Open Wallet and tap the card you want to use from the list. Place and hold your finger on Touch ID or enter the passcode until you see a confirmation message that you are ready to pay. Your device will remain ready to pay for the next 30 seconds. Hold the device near the contactless reader to complete the payment.
You don't typically "turn on" NFC on modern iPhones; it's always on for automatic functions like Apple Pay and tag reading, but you can enable the tag reader feature through the Shortcuts app by creating an NFC automation, which prompts a scan when near a tag. For older models (iPhone 7/8), you might add the NFC Tag Reader to the Control Center via Settings.
If you receive a “Something's wrong” message during a Tap to Pay sale, confirm the following: Your device is supported: Tap to Pay is currently available on iPhone XS and above running iOS 16.7 or later. Your device software is up-to-date: To update to the latest version, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
Pay with your iPhone
To activate Apple Pay, you usually double-click the side button (for Face ID iPhones) or double-click the home button (for Touch ID iPhones) to bring up your default card, then authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode, and hold the top of your phone near the contactless reader. For Apple Watch, double-click the side button and hold the watch face to the reader.
To pay with your phone, set up a digital wallet like Apple Pay (iPhone) or Google Wallet/Pay (Android), add your debit/credit cards, ensure your phone's NFC is on, then simply unlock your phone and hold the back near a contactless payment terminal (look for the symbol) to tap and pay.
How it works
A digital wallet — is even more secure than a chip card because it doesn't use your actual card number for the transaction. As a security measure, your card information is only used in the initial setup of the wallet, helping increase mobile payment protection.
Making Apple Pay transactions
When you double-click the side button or hold your iPhone near a contactless reader in-store, your selected app will launch automatically after you have unlocked your iPhone. The cards you've saved in your Apple Wallet to make Apple Pay transactions will no longer be presented.
NFC-enabled loyalty cards, discount cards, and points cards in Apple Wallet can be read with Tap to Pay on iPhone independently of or at the same time as payment cards.