Even more amazing is that the US even changed payment systems to a chip-based system just a couple of years ago, but apparently didn't mandate that everyone adopts contactless payment when updating their hardware. Foolish.
Credit cards are accepted prettily reliable in supermarkets such as Rewe and Aldi but even other big (and more expensive chains) such as Edeka often only accept EC cards, which is pretty frustrating. EC cards are accepted at more places but you can still find many restaurants that don’t accept any cards at all and many local stores will laugh at you when you try to use anything but cash. If you find a place that takes them, chances are they have some restrictions such as that cards are only accpected for purchases over a certain amount (amount being 10€ or 20€). Most taxis don’t accept them either and those that do charge a 3€ fee.
Whenever I’m with my family and they see me buy a coke or anything under 10€ using my credit card they feel somewhat ashamed because they are not sure why I would do that. Most of them take a credit card quite literally: you only use it when you want to buy something you cannot afford and have to take a credit for that. Now when they see my checking out, they are often surprised how quick the process is (it often takes only a second from them activating they terminal until my card is accept but some stores use slow devices which can take up to 5 seconds).
The reason why we don’t have Apple Pay at all is because we don’t accept cards. And when we accept credit cards, chances are they are also contactless. The only place that didn’t have them are my gas station and the pet store (though the pet store upgraded recently). This means, if you are a foreigner and you find a place that takes a credit card, you can use Apple Pay but the store clerk might be confused and call their manager (they once did that to me when I used contact less payments because they did not know you could use your card like that and also I did not enter my pin and the receipt had no sign here line. They still made my sign the receipt though).
That being said, now that I live here with a non-NFC credit card, I use Android Pay for most my payments. Tapping is far easier than swipe + sign.
I saw a clerk's mind blow when my parents used their Canadian cards to tap to pay. It's sad that it's such a stretch to see it happening because it shows how incredibly far off the US is in terms of payment technologies. I miss having NFC on all my cards. :(
I used it most days on holiday in Italy, whether paying for groceries or at restaurants.
There are only two things which stop me using it more often - there's a limit of £30(?) for contactless transactions, and one of my credit cards isn't supported.
Check with your bank if you can adjust it. Many places allow changing it. You can also sometimes change the amount that you don't require the pin for.
Apple Pay has my VISA & Amex in it. I live in Sydney and I would say 95% of merchants who accept credit card have terminals which support contact-less payments. I have found this to be such a great implementation of technology.
My VISA card was ripped off when buying something online (not using Apple Pay) and my bank was able to cancel that card and push a new card to my phone pretty much within minutes. My Apple Pay experience had effectively zero downtime while I waited a few days for a new CC to be mailed to me.
Android users: did you know you can add shortcuts to specific cards to your home screen? Pretty neat even though I tend to use my default card for the vast majority of POS purchases.
I have started using Apple Pay more and more because it is so much faster than inserting my credit card into the chip reader.
Not sure who or what Costco had to do that to get such fast processing... but why can't everyone sign up for that!
Apple Pay is great when it works, and it's my default method of payment. I rarely use it on the phone, but I love using it on the Apple Watch. It's rare enough that I still get double takes from vendors all around the world.
In the US, lots of credit cards are compatible with Apple pay, but contactless POS are still rare, and occasionally they get disabled (IIRC Walgreens disabled theirs for a while).
In Europe, the problem is the opposite: Contactless POS are ubiquitous, but in many countries, only niche CC providers support Apple pay. This is not too dissimilar from carrier support in the early years of iPhone, though, and I can see the situation improving over time.
And as merchants had to pay their own way to comply with the new chip requirements, they too mostly went the cheap route, which was to buy POS systems that support chip, not chip and RFID.
The reason we have contact only cards, is issuers. The reason we have chip and sign, is issuers. They want the American consumer to have as many cards as possible, and different PINs for each card discourages having a wallet of 10 cards.
My local grocery store (3min walk from my house) supports it, most coffee shops and drug stores and the like do as well. Hell, I don't even carry my wallet most days.
I got some odd looks using it in Canada and NZ but that was when apple pay was newer; I think it was about using my phone, not about contactless.
*edit: spelling
I've only seen two businesses actually advertise that they take Apple Pay, but I've used it at countless businesses that don't advertise it.
The only places that I go to, that I can think of at the moment, that do not accept NFC payments are:
My Employers Cafeteria
Any gas pump
7/11 (I wish they would support NFC payments)
Costco
The little grocery store on the corner (They use Square and they have not upgraded their gear yet)
Just about all restaurants
Plus bigger stores like Target still don't support it.
In London, I was able to use Apple Pay to pay for all of my subway and bus rides directly.
(edit: I'm in the U.S.)