Israel's Pepper bank briefly picks up support for Apple Pay via a new app update

Apple Watch and Apple Pay
Apple Watch and Apple Pay (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Apple Pay is now available to Pepper customers.
  • Users have been receiving new app updates over the last day or so.

Israeli bank Pepper has begun to send app updates to customers inviting them to add their cards to the Wallet app for use with Apple Pay. But it seems it might have jumped the gun a little.

First reported by The Verifier, internet bank Pepper started to send app updates out earlier today with text that immediately asked users to get Apple Pay-ready. The move comes as Israel as a whole continues to implement the systems required for Apple Pay and other contactless payments to function.

However, it appears that Pepper got a bit ahead of itself because anyone trying to add their card for Apple Pay use received an error. And Pepper is already rolling an update out to remove the feature completely.

When you try to add the credit card to Apple Pay, you receive an error message that warns you that the card or bank does not support the service. Pepper, for its part, has already removed the message from the last update, so if you still see the message, it may disappear in the next update.

It's likely that Apple is yet to flick the switch that's needed to get Apple Pay off the ground for Pepper customers. When that will be, nobody knows. But someone at Pepper clearly thought it was going to be today!

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.