We have seen several big signs of Apple Pay’s arrival in Malaysia over the past few weeks. However, we reckoned that there is no bigger indicator than this: actual physical signage at a retail store. According to Twitter user @riisams, he spotted this signage at a Maxis Centre in Selangor this morning. We tried to find the signage ourselves at the nearest Maxis Centre to our HQ which is the branch at the Gardens Mall but it was not there which means that particular branch may have jumped the gun.
— Fitri Samsil (@riisams) August 5, 2022 While the appearance of the signage is rather exciting, Malaysian users are still not able to add their payment cards to the Wallet app today. Just like what we have noted before, users would encounter a pop-up message that points them to a page on Apple US’s support site that provides instructions for passes and tickets rather than payment cards. Just yesterday, we reported that Shopee Malaysia has added Apple Pay as one of its payment methods. While the option is available through its mobile app and website, the popular e-commerce platform has yet to officially acknowledge Apple Pay on its support site. The SMS from AmBank. [Image: ken8888 / Lowyat.NET Forums]Last month, a Lowyat.NET Forumer have received an SMS message from AmBank which said that their card can now be used with Apple Pay. The SMS message also includes a link that we believe is a dedicated section for Apple Pay on the bank’s official website but so far, we only received the error 404 when we visited it. All in all, it seems like it is only a matter of time that Malaysian users will finally be able to utilize Apple Pay. There are some rumours among Lowyat.NET Forumers that the feature could be activated as early as next week but nevertheless, we will keep you posted once we see any concrete signs or information regarding Apple Pay’s arrival in Malaysia. UPDATE [6:35 PM]: Apple Pay has been listed as one of the payment methods on the Maxis website, according to a screenshot shared by Lowyat.NET Forumer me076310. We have since verified it ourselves, as the Apple Pay logo is still there on the site at the time this update was amended into this report. Interesting enough, it was listed as an e-wallet option alongside Grab Pay and TNG eWallet. In our opinion, it is rather inaccurate to describe Apple Pay as an e-wallet unless there is Apple Cash involved since this particular feature allows users to transfer, receive, and store money within their Wallet app. However, this particular service is only available in the U.S at the moment. Since Apple Cash service was rolled out through a partnership with a US-based prepaid debit card company Green Dot, we don’t expect it to be rolled out here and even the image shown on the signage at Maxis Centre earlier did not depict the feature. Apple Cash feature inside the Wallet app on iPhone and Apple Watch. [Image: Apple,]Hence, we feel is rather odd that Maxis has categorized Apple Pay as an e-wallet. Nevertheless, the biggest take here is that a huge Malaysian telco has technically acknowledged Apple Pay and looks like it should roll out anytime now.
