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Kuwaiti Banks Testing Apple Pay

Local banks have started testing Apple Pay after the Ministry of Finance dropped the idea of trying to levy a tax on Apple. Apple Pay allows you to pay by tapping your phone or watch to a payment terminal without needing to have your physical card on you. Apple Pay already works on our existing Knet machines but until now it hasn’t been possible to add your Kuwaiti debit or credit card to your phone.

All local banks are expected to launch Apple Pay at the same time, so no matter what bank you use, you’ll have Apple Pay.

I’m curious to see if adding a local Kuwaiti card to my US Apple account will cause some sort of conflict. I don’t think it will. Do you have a non-US card connected to your US Apple account? Does it change anything?

64 replies on “Kuwaiti Banks Testing Apple Pay”

Yes obviously, that’s the point of this post. Soon you will be able to link a Kuwaiti card to Apple Pay.

I feel you I even can’t add a local credit card for my apple itunes payments or even link my paypal to the itunes store cause my account is US but card is Kuwaiti

I had an issue adding my card in UK, my apple account was Kuwaiti and when I added my UK card it didn’t allow me for some reason, then I found out on reddit that I needed to change my region in the settings of the iPhone to united kingdom and it worked.

you don’t need to change the account. correct me if I’m wrong, but you just change the device region not the apple account that you use.

This will suck for sure if thats the case cause the US store has more variety of apps and you can subscribe to more with VPN
The local itunes store has many restrictions for apps

You do not need to change your account region. You only need to change your device region which is found in “Language & Region” under the General option in the settings tab. I was able to add my UAE cards this way even though my account region is not UAE (so change device region to Kuwait, add said cards and once added, change region back to USA)

You’re gonna lose all your subscriptions (automatic renewal). After changing my country from US to Kuwait, I was able to add my local debit card..Actually, I had zero in my Apple wallet before that… YES it SUCKS!!

I run two accounts on my iPhone, the main one for iCloud and all the general services(KW). the second one only for the App store (US).

Yes, you can sign in to the App store with a separate iCloud account. Just open the store, click the account icon and scroll all the way to the bottom (past all app updates), you will find option to sign out. This will sign you out only from the App store. Log in here with your US account. Done.

yup, I’ll face the same problem I guess when adding my Kuwaiti cards, will it deactivate my UK card? lets see.

also below is the post that I found in reddit when I was trying to add my card to apple pay.

‘For starters, Apple Pay doesn’t work in all countries. You may be unable to add a bank card to Apple Pay if your Apple ID or device’s region is set to an unsupported country. To check or change the region of your iOS or iPadOS device, go to Settings > General > Language & Region > Region and select a supported country.’

‘You also want to make sure your Apple ID’s region is set to a country where Apple Pay works. To check your Apple ID country (on iPhone or iPad), launch the Settings app and tap your account name to open the Apple ID settings menu. Afterward, go to Media & Purchases > View Account > Country/Region to view your Apple ID region.’

‘Note: You’ll need to cancel all active subscriptions before you can change your Apple ID country. To do that, go to Settings, click your account name, and select Subscriptions. Select the subscription(s) on the page and tap Cancel Subscription.’

So I have to give up my US apple account? I hope there’s a way around it. This really sucks. I’d rather stick to my actual debit card in this case.

Yesterday by pure coincidence before this announcement was made, I was buying a post workout smoothie and had forgotten my wallet in my car so I pulled out my iPhone and used my UK card Apple Pay for the first time in Kuwait 😊

My Apple account is UK based so let’s see how my Kuwaiti card works

My past experience with apple accounts suggests that US accounts will not be allowed to link non-US cards.
I love my Samsung Pay.

Thats not true. Imagine an American living in Kuwait, or anywhere abroad, why can’t they add their local bank cards?

Also, I have an account with Nomo from the UK, and the debit card is setup on Apple Pay and I use an American iTunes account

Oh yes, that is true. I know people with US and Kuwaiti iTune accounts with Nomo bank (which even though Kuwaiti owned is a British bank). I guess that proves beyond a doubt that you can have an iTunes Store and a card from different countries.

Yes.
These are the banks that supports Samsung Pay; ABK, Boubyan Bank, Burgan Bank, Gulf Bank, Kuwait Finance Bank, NBK and Warba Bank.

I have been using Samsung pay Since 2019. You can also add your Loyalty Cards.

I live in Dubai at the moment , My Apple is a US account and i use cards on my Apple pay from the UAE, USA and the UK. Has nothing to do with the region, if the bank allows it, your good to go.

I just setup Apple Cash, and it seems I can now use the money in my US store and pay for anything anywhere with a tap of my watch. You are telling me I could have had this for years. I feel like its too good to be true. Where’s the catch? Especially since you can often buy a $100 iTunes card for as low as $96 sometimes at excite or sheeel, this is fantastic.

Am I an idiot for misunderstanding what I just setup? Or am I an idiot for not knowing about this years ago. Either way I’m an idiot. lol

lol yeah, thats how it works. you just load up your wallet up with cash and u can then go around Kuwait tapping your watch on the knet machine to pay.

Don’t be so hard on yourself man, this feature apparently came out in May of 2022, and wasn’t made a big deal out of which is why a lot of people don’t know about it

Are you sure it is showing you the money in the US store as the money in your Apple Cash? Because my Apple Cash is showing 0 and when I click to add money it says I need to add a debit or credit card for that.

So it was too good to be true. Anyways, Apple Pay is coming very soon, and Apple Cash will work for us when it Apple Pay comes.

Man that did it! NICE. How are more people not using this? People were getting accounts in Nomo Bank UK just to be able to use Apple Pay. This is a gamer changer (well at least for a few weeks until we all get Apple Pay).

This didn’t work for me, but in my case I have had Paypal setup for a while to take care of my iOs purchases directly without having to top-up. Even when I added funds to my Apple Account to try this, the moment I try to access anything under “Wallet & Apple Pay”, it asks me to add a card (which obviously doesn’t work yet).

So I’m not sure if it would work if I remove Paypal as a payment method. Currently when I check my iCloud settings, it shows Apple Funds (the $ amount I added) and below that the Paypal is shown.

I think there is some confusion here. There are two separate issues, a) Using your Kuwaiti card with Apple Pay (while you still have US or UK cards). b) using your Kuwaiti Card with a non-Kuwait iTunes Store account. for a) you can add and use as many cards from any number of countries to your Apple Pay and they will all work just fine.

However, the iTunes Store can only add accept cards issued from the country of the store you choose. So the US store will only accept US cards, the UK store will only accept UK cards.. etc. So you will NOT be able to add you Kuwaiti card (even after supporting Apple Pay) to your US iTunes Store account.

100% this thank you for clearing it all.

I’ll add my experience which I added to the Kuwestion mentioned above:

I used my UK debit card on Apple Pay with no issue taping away whilst having my region set as Kuwait with my Kuwait debit card linked to that.

Your Apple account and region and payment card is separate from Apple Pay. Apple Pay is your virtual wallet at the end of the day

iTunes account region and iPhone ‘device’ region are 2 different things.

Adding bank cards to your iPhone wallet requires setting the “device’s” region to a country where Apple Pay is available.

Nevertheless, after Apple Pay launches in Kuwait, keeping a Kuwaiti region for your device should be OK.

Your streaming subscriptions , your iTunes credit, and US (or whatever) store/region can stay the same to whatever setting you currently have.

I personally have debit/credit cards from 4 different countries all active in my Apple Wallet.

Long story short, keep all your settings unchanged and everything will work just fine.

Yes, your account will work fine. I also have US Apple account and no issues adding cards to Apple Pay from two different non-US countries.

I was able to add my gulf bank mastercard debit card to apple pay just now, It just needs to enter the otp that you will receive when it ask you to verify.

My account
US itunes account

What I have right now on my wallet and apple pay
Apple Cash
Apple Account
Mastercard Debit (Gulf Bank)

Technology is supposed to make things easy, after going through most of the comments, it’s making it all sound confusing as hell! 😤 I feel like I could be breaking the law with how many hoops I have to jump through just to use some stupid app. Is using cash or credit cards that much of a hassle for some people?? Have people really become THAT dependent on their phones? smh 😓

Paying with your phone is making it easier. It’s not about the hassle of using a credit card but think of it as why carry an extra device with you just to pay with (Credit card) when you can just use a device you already carry (the phone). It’s simplifying your life.

Using cash on the other hand is definitely a hassle.

You can add any card at the same time for Apple Pay, it doesn’t work the same way you add a card on your iTunes/app store. There the control is to ensure you select your proper region, adding cards to Apple Pay doesn’t do that. I have multiple (international) cards added without any issues.

kuwait they don’t know how to deal with big company like apple
apple pay will available late 6 years
but
still ( map -movie -sport ) not available in kuwait

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