With immediate effect, the credit cards and prepaid cards issued by Viseca on behalf of numerous cantonal and regional banks can be used with Apple Pay. These include the credit cards issued for the cantonal banks of Zurich, Basel, St. Gallen, Thurgau and Bern and Bank Cler.
Apple Pay launched in Switzerland in 2016. But until now, Viseca and its partner banks chose not to make its payment cards compatible with US tech giant Apple’s mobile wallet service.
Now, three years later, Viseca has decided to add Apple Pay compatibility.
Viseca is part of the Aduno group, which is one of Switzerland’s largest credit card and prepaid card service providers. Aduno is jointly owned by a consortium of Swiss banks which includes the cantonal banks, Raiffeisen banks, Migros Bank, Bank Cler and many regional banks.
Raiffeisen and Migros Bank are not on board
Not all of the banks which use Viseca are moving to Apple Pay compatibility for their credit and prepaid cards. Major Swiss banks like Raiffeisen, Migros Bank, Valiant, the Aargauische Kantonalbank and the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise are not yet hopping on Apple’s band wagon.
Major banks UBS and PostFinance – which issue their own credit cards rather than using Viseca – have also steered clear of a partnership with Apple so far.
“Apple’s mobile wallet is obviously not a welcome development for major Swiss banks. It competes directly with the Twint mobile wallet backed by UBS, PostFinance and other major banks,” says moneyland.ch CEO Benjamin Manz.
It is also worth noting that Apple charges banks and card issuers fees for transactions made using Apple Pay. This generates additional transaction costs.
Compare credit cards and prepaid cards
The unbiased and comprehensive credit card comparison on moneyland.ch lets you quickly find all Swiss credit cards and prepaid cards which can be used with Apple Pay. Currently, these include cards from Viseca, Swisscard, Bonuscard, Cornèrcard and Swiss Bankers.
Simply select the Apple Pay filter under Services to limit comparison results to cards that are Apple Pay compatible.
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