Do I Have to Set Up Apple Pay?

Photo credit: AlphaPenguin, CC BY 2.0.

I finally installed the newest iOS update. I’d been holding off because of the bugs and security issues, but I needed to upgrade in order to switch my phone over to a low-cost MVNO carrier (more on that later this week).

But this update comes with multiple annoying reminders to set up Apple Pay—Apple’s “pay directly from your phone” service—which I don’t think I want to do.

Apple Pay has been around since 2014; long-term Billfolders might remember Mike Dang writing about the launch. This latest update introduces Apple Pay Cash, which is Apple’s way of letting you bug your friends for the money they owe you:

Apple Pay is easy and works with the Apple devices you use every day. You can make secure purchases in stores, in apps, and on the web. And now you can send and receive money from friends and family right in Messages. Apple Pay is even simpler than using your physical card, and safer too.

I know that I am about a week late to Apple Pay Cash, mostly because I hoped that I could ignore it forever, but my phone really really really wants me to sign up. All I have to do is add my credit and debit cards to Wallet, then unlock my phone and hold it up to any Apple Pay-eligible credit card terminal. Or use it online instead of typing my information into forms! Or ask Siri to pay my friend $15 for my share of dinner!

Are any of you signed up with Apple Pay? Do you like it? Can I keep ignoring it, or accept that this is where we’re headed and I might as well join now?

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