Apple Pay expands to Guatemala and El Salvador with these banks

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Guatemala and El Salvador are now online.

Apple Pay paying for coffee
(Image credit: Pexels)

Users of Apple devices like the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Ultra can now use Apple Pay in two new countries.

Years after Apple Pay went live in the United States and other countries, Guatemala and El Salvador have now both come online thanks to Banco Promerica and BAC Credomatic both supporting the Apple contactless payments system.

With Apple Pay enabled owners of VISA and Mastercard credit and debit cards with either of those two banks can now set up Apple Pay on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The cards can then also be synced to an Apple Watch for use while on the go.

Faster, safer payments

The new support for Apple Pay in Guatemala and El Salvador was first reported by 9to5Mac with Twitter user @aaronp613 confirming that Apple's back-end services confirmed that the two countries had been added to the mix.

Shoppers won't need to have the latest or best iPhone to use Apple Pay, thankfully. Apple Pay is supported on all iPhones with Face ID as well as all Touch ID-equipped iPhones except the iPhone 5s. All iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, and iPad mini models with Touch ID or Face ID are also compatible, while the Apple Watch Series 1 and later are also good to go.

Payments can be made either in-person or over the internet using apps or the Safari web browser.

Apple Pay is a great way to not only make quicker and more convenient payments but also keep your card details safe. Apple Pay doesn't share your real card details with the merchant, preventing them from being misused later. All of your details are saved on your devices safe and sound, and authentication is required before a payment is processed. Apple Pay Express Transit is the one exception there, however, with contactless payments for compatible public transit functioning without authentication. Apple Pay Express Transit can be disabled to ensure authentication is required at all times.

Oliver Haslam
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.