As we’re all finding safer ways to interact with one another, Apple Pay continues to grow in popularity. Apple Pay doesn’t just offer an easy way to make payments in person and online from your iPhone, Apple Watch, and apps, but also to send money to friends and family. Even better: your Branch Card and Digital Wallet work seamlessly with Apple Pay. 

If you haven’t joined the hundreds of millions of people who use Apple Pay yet, we’ve laid out 5 reasons you should try it out:

1. Easy and FAST

Even if you’ve never used Apple Pay before, Branch has made it super simple to connect Apple Pay. In fact, it takes less than two minutes and no manual typing to get it all set up! Just head over to your Branch Wallet Settings tab and click the Apple Pay icon. With a few more taps and agreement to the terms of service, you’re in! Once it’s set up, you can start spending from your Branch Digital Wallet immediately. You can also easily send or receive money with your friends and family through iMessage when you’ve set up Apple Pay. 
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2. Contactless Payments

Apple Pay has become the go-to solution for both companies and people to operate transactions with minimal contact and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Many stores no longer allow for cash payments, or at least encourage contactless payments. Using NFC (or near field communication) technology, Apple Pay is able to use a type of radio frequency identification that allows your smartphone to communicate with the payment reader when they’re close together, instead of handing your debit card over to a cashier. After opening up Apple Pay, just hover (but don’t touch!) your phone near the card reader. Check it out in action here. 

3. Fee-free

We’re big into things being “fee-free” at Branch. It’s free to set up Apple Pay with your Branch Digital Wallet. Once set up, there’s no fee to send, receive, or request money to and from your linked Branch Card when you use normal delivery. 

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4. Convenience

Branch is always looking for ways to make managing your money faster and more accessible. You can set up Apple Pay before your Branch Card arrives, meaning you can start spending from your Digital Wallet the day you sign up. Once you have Apple Pay, you never have to worry about forgetting your wallet at home—your Branch Card lives right on your phone! 

5. More Security

‍One of the major advantages of Apple Pay is “tokenization.” Instead of using credit card data, transactions are made using tokens, which help banks decide which card to charge. Because of this, merchants never have access to your credit card data and it’s incredibly difficult for fraudsters to steal your card information. You can also easily lock your Branch Card in the Branch App, which in turn locks anyone from using your card through Apple Pay. 

Apple Pay is just one of the features that makes Branch such an easy choice for working Americans. With contactless payments and the ability to access your money the day you sign up with Branch, Apple Pay will help launch you into the future of financial services. Learn more about how your Branch Card and Digital Wallet work, and how they can be linked to Apple Pay below.