Today, March 24, Apple disabled linking Mir cards to Apple Pay, convinced AppleInsider.ru. They can no longer be added to the Wallet app on iPhone and other company devices that support contactless payment. The service refuses to accept new cards and gives an error with the following content: “The card is not available. This card cannot be used with Apple Pay at this time.” Up to this point, Mir cards were the only payment method in Russia that supported Apple’s contactless service.
Updated 25.03: Apple terminated the contract with the NSPK, so now even previously linked Mir maps do not work. This was confirmed in support of the NSPK. Payment in stores does not pass. You can no longer pay with an iPhone or a watch. Apple Pay in Russia is officially everything.
Despite the disconnection of the binding of new cards of the Mir payment system, those that were already linked to Apple Pay have not yet been disconnected. Therefore, many who did not see any errors accepted the news about the blocking for stuffing. However, MasterCard and Visa cards, which have long been do not work with Apple Payalso still did not get rid of, which means that relying on the fact that there are no errors is not too far-sighted.
Mir card does not connect to Apple Pay
global problems with payment by iPhone with a linked Mir card not seen in Russian stores yet. This was confirmed by the editor-in-chief of AppleInsider.ru Renat Grishin. However, I couldn’t pay with Apple Pay in transport. I got an error saying that the token could not be created and was preventing the transaction from going through. But perhaps the reason was that the terminal belonged to VTB Bank, which is under sanctions and Doesn’t accept Apple Pay. Although a few days ago, the terminals of Gorelektrotrans in Saransk accepted my payment without any problems.
If Mir cards can no longer be linked to Apple Pay, most likely, Apple terminated the contract with the National Payment Card System, under whose auspices they are issued. Thus, the residents of Russia no longer have the opportunity to link new cards to the payment service of the company from Cupertino. However, to state that Apple just disabled Apple Pay on the territory of our country is not yet possible. But there was information that Apple will disable the already linked Mir cards in Russia before the beginning of April.
To date, there are no statements from Apple about disabling Apple Pay in Russia, but practice shows that it is no longer possible to link World cards of various banks to Wallet. This is Tinkoff, and Sberbank, and Raiffeisen Bank, and many others. It turns out that the service really no longer works with new cards, since such errors have never happened before. However, the old ones still allow you to pay without any problems.
Is it possible to pay with a Mir card from an iPhone
Make sure that Apple Pay won’t let me add a World cardyou can do it yourself:
- Launch the Wallet app on your iPhone;
- In the upper right corner, click on the “+” icon;
- Scan the card or enter its data manually;
- Try to confirm the addition and you will get an error.
In what Apple will disable Apple Pay in Russia, still unbelievable. Still, the Russian market in this sense is one of the most important for the company. In our country, the vast majority of terminals are equipped with a contactless payment function and support for Apple Pay, which is not found even in the USA, in the homeland of Apple. There, many terminals still do not accept payment by iPhone or watch.
While the question of further Apple Pay in Russia remains open. On the one hand, local users no longer have the ability to add new cards to Wallet, but on the other hand, pay for purchases with iPhone and Apple Watch are not yet blocked in the country. However, to avoid potential payment issues, we strongly recommend that you carry a physical card with you. You never know.
