According to two different reports, Apple is pairing up with MasterCard, Visa, and American Express to make a wallet system that will be introduced with the iPhone 6 on September 9. On Sunday, American Express agreed to work with Apple on the new payment system, and Apple has held talks with other credit card companies about the system as well. Visa had already agreed to partner with Apple.
The payment system will supposedly use near-field communication (NFC) and Touch ID and will allow users to pay at quickly and easily at stores. Analysts say that if Apple and the iPhone 6 bring NFC to consumers, mobile payments will break into the mainstream and it will be available everywhere. Right now, merchants are afraid to invest in the time and money to install the machines because not many people have NFC-capable phones, and phone manufacturers (namely, Apple) haven’t installed it into their phones because not many merchants offer the machines to accept mobile payments. That would all change; Apple currently holds the credit card information for around 800 million customers.
MasterCard and Apple refused to comment on a partnership.
