Apple Pay Will Launch Oct. 20?

For those consumers eager to start paying for goods from their iPhone, it looks there might be a solid release date. Apple is rumored to launch the first mobile payment system, as part of iOS 8.1, on October 20th.

Back in September, Bank Innovation reported that Apple was already in the process of doing an early beta test for Apple Pay.

Several days ago, Hamza Sood, a developer at Apple, posted a screenshot from the beta that showed off how to enter debit or credit card info as well as billing and shipping addresses and personal contact details. The screenshot also contained Apple Pay’s privacy policy, which basically states that information may be provided to the card issuer for use in fraud detection.

Apple Pay will use the NFC technology in both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to allow users to pay for goods at any supported location such as Bloomingdales, Whole Foods and McDonalds to just name a few. Starting sometime next year, Apple Pay will also work with the iPhone 5, 5s and 5c but only in collaboration with the Apple Watch, which still is TBD as far as the release dates goes.

Apple Pay will also be featured on the iPad with Touch ID, but will be just for purchasing things through applications, not at the point of sale via NFC. Thank goodness we’re all safe from people whacking their iPads on terminals in the stores.

Apple partnered up with some big players in the payment space, which includes American Express, MasterCard and Visa and has promised all payment information will be encrypted for security purposes.