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Comment by snalty | Hacker News Reader

I personally think this is probably the right decision, however I hope banks still offer both Apple Pay and their own option. Being able to switch cards from within the wallet app is a much better experience than having to open another banking app (and potentially having to sign in to that app), or having to change the default system payments app to use the card I want.

Although I live in the UK so this probably won't affect me.

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Can you explain why you prefer paying with your phone rather than with physical cards? This seems to just have downsides to me (need to have phone charged, have to fiddle around to start payment app etc) when you can just wave a plastic card in front of a terminal and be done with it.

Only potential upside I can think of would be that you don't need to bring a wallet, but you'd still need that for ID, driver's license etc. anyways.

On Android you just unlock your phone and hold it up to the terminal. No need to start an app first.

Secondly, I prefer paying with my phone for the simple reason that I always bring my phone anyway, so now I could leave my cards at home if I wanted to.

> have to fiddle aroudn to start payment app

This isn't really a thing with Apple Pay. You double tap the power button as you grab your phone, then Apple Pay is active (pending face id or unlock via watch), it's a very smooth process.

On top of that, in my experience, tap to pay (via card or phone) is much quicker to process than swiping or inserting chip.

But when shopping from home the default on a lot of sites is Apple Pay which is ridiculously easy compared to most other options. The comparison to in store shopping isn’t the same (though Apple Pay is still relatively easy where i hold the phone up to the terminal and it works).

The cool part is paying w/ your watch, and you don't really need to start any app - it's NFC anyways. Yet, I don't have the payments with phone/watch enabled.

Convenience, plain and simple. I've never once been concerned about battery life on my phone. It's VERY rare for me to ever be below 50% at any point in the day, even on a long day where I've been mostly on cellular. But the iPhone now has a feature that even if your battery is "dead", some cards will still be available for use (it's a very specific feature/setting).

Same applies with my watch, which has the same cards available. It's nice if I run to a convenience mart after a run, where I often don't carry my phone or wallet. Just tap my watch at the terminal, and off I go!

I carry -- and regularly use -- around 5-6 cards that all have specific uses. Having a digital wallet to manage these is awesome. My physical wallet, I carry only three cards: my ID, debit card and my health insurance card.

I hold the phone more often than my wallet or physical card. It takes less time to use it for payment than pulling the card out of my wallet in my pocket, if I carry it in the first place.

In many US states, and European countries, driver's license is now also offered digitally. So it's not true that you always need a physicial driver's license.

I find it very conveniet to only have to carry my phone with me. It's also (I would argue) more secure, since even if someone was to steal my phone, they wouldn't be able to use the credit cards or stored driver's license without my face or fingerprint.

you are trading absolute surveillance for daily convenience, right?

Going for a run. Why carry my wallet?

Passing through a turnstile at a station, can pay with my watch without pulling out either my phone or wallet.

Tons of situations like those

Besides the practicality mentioned by the sibling commenters, there's also the limits part. Google/Apple Pay don't suffer from the low limits physical cards have for contactless payments ( it was 20 euros pre-pandemic here, now it's 50 or 100). Your phone having biometric auth is considered enough by banks to not have limits.

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