Almost one year after its initial announcement, the Octopus card is now finally supported by Apple Pay! iPhone and Apple Watch users can now pay for their transit, meals, and shopping with just one easy tap. This new payment solution also means you can skip the queues and check your balance or top up the card using any credit, debit, or ATM card, or from your bank account without extra service fees. But before you start tapping away, here's what you need to know:
Supported Models
iPhone 8 (or newer)
Apple Watch Series 3 (or newer)
Get a new card instead
Users will be able to purchase a new virtual Octopus card directly from the iOS Wallet app. You might want to do this instead of transferring your current Octopus because once you transfer your Octopus to Apple Pay, your physical card will be rendered unusable and the process cannot be reversed. It might be handy to keep your card around for those times when your battery is drained or when you don't have your phone on you.
Specific Octopus cards cannot be transferred to Apple Pay
These include child Octopus, personalised cards with disabilities status, personalised cards with student status, staff personalised Octopus, as well as personalised cards with Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau, and Disneyland monthly passes.
The virtual card behaves like a normal Octopus card; all you need to do is just tap it on the sensor and you are good to go. Those familiar with Apple Pay may wonder if they have to go through the security process through Touch/Face ID, but that is unnecessary using iPhone's Express Transit Card setting, which means the process will be as smooth as using a physical Octopus. Doot!
For more information, head to the Octopus website and give the guidelines a read through.