The massive centralization of our life is a huge problem.
Like we said "don't give everything to facebook" 10 years ago and people only wake up now, I wish people realized it's not about a particular brand. It's a general advice.
The worst part is that the power you give to them is invisible, so it doesn't seem that much. It feels harmless. But the potential for controlling ones life is huge.
I prefer Apple Pay over contactless as you can often go over the £30 limit of contactless. Eg I’ve spent £80+ at Waitrose and paid using Apple Pay. Plus it is more secure- you must authenticate to use it- and that added security doesn’t take long at all (under 1 second to Touch ID). I’ve got 3 cards (two debit, one credit) linked to Apple Pay.
I only have one contactless card, which is just to replace my Oyster card for tube/public transport travel, and that’s only because it’s quicker to pay with when going through the gates. I explicitly called the banks and told them to send me non-contactless versions of all my other cards.
Oh, and Apple Pay doesn’t suffer from card clash. Which is one of the other reasons why I only have one contactless card in my wallet.
So kind of agreeing with you - Apple Pay is great because then I don’t need to take my card (whereas I’ll always take my phone) and it has added security of Face Recognition.
However, the poor adoption (ie, all those places that don’t have contactless, don’t take cards, money transfers to friends, parking meters....). Contactless vs ApplePay is 50:50.
Plus, if my card is stolen, it can’t be abused on multiple cheap contactless purchases. Sure the bank will refund, but it’s still a pain of a process to go through, especially if the bank pushes back at all.
A lot of places seem to support apple pay, but it's much less convenient than contactless (obviously some people disagree).