How-to Set Up and Add Credit Cards to Apple Pay

Apple launched Apple Pay Monday, a service that allows iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners to conduct credit card transactions through NFC at participating retailers. Apple Pay was included in iOS 8.1, which was released to consumers earlier on Monday, and it's pretty easy to set up—if you know that it's in Passbook, that is. Here's how to get it going.

First, install iOS 8.1. Boom! That's pretty easy. Feel free to wait for those of us who do this for a living to make sure iOS 8.1 doesn't b0rk your phone, but this article will be here when you're ready.

Second, Apple Pay is a feature within Passbook—it's not a separate app. To find it, launch Passbook in iOS 8.1. Any tickets, passes, loyalty cards, or anything else already entered will appear. Pull down on that screen, and you'll get a plus sign at the upper right.

Tap that, and you'll get this screen, part of which is new. Tap "Add Another Card:"

Apple Pay

Add Another Card

The first time you do this, you'll be asked if you want to add your iTunes credit card. If you select yes, it's done. To add another card, repeat the process above, and you'll get this screen:

Apple Pay

Card Details

You can hand enter the numbers for your card, but a faster method is to tap the camera and take a picture, like this:

Apple Pay

Scan It

You don't even have to snap it yourself. When you get your card lined up, as shown in the image above—and note how liberal it is—it will grab your CC number, your name, and the expiration date. If it doesn't grab all three, you can either do it again or enter the missing data.

Once you enter the CCV security code, it will either activate or add another layer of activation. For the American Express card below, I was given the option to receive a code—your options will depend on what American Express has on you. Once I received the activation code, it was done.

Apple Pay

Card Activated

From there, you'll see all your active cards on the main screen. On this device, I only had Apple Pay cards set up, so no other cards are visible. Note the lack of identifying information on this screen.

Your Cards

These Are the Cards I Know I Know

Tap one of those cards, and that's the one you'll be paying with. On this AmEx card, I was shown my most recent transaction, even though that transaction was made before the launch of Apple Pay. This is because AmEx is passing that data along. The other cards I tested didn't have that info.

Apple Pay

One Payment System to Rule Them All

Not all banks have signed up with Apple Pay, but most have. Not all cards within a given bank will be supported, however. We've found that Chase only supports Chase Visa, while Citi supported one MasterCard, but not another.

There you have it! Easy peasy!