Paying With Your Phone in Australia: Apple Pay and Google Pay Explained

You’re at the supermarket checkout and the person ahead of you doesn’t reach for their wallet. They hold their phone near the card machine, it beeps, and they walk off. No card, no PIN, no fuss. If you’ve wondered how that works, and whether it’s something you could do too, this is for you. And when you’re shopping online rather than in a shop, PayPal does a similar job of keeping your card details private.

The short version is that your phone can hold your bank card and pay for things by tapping, the same way tap and go works with a card. On an iPhone it’s called Apple Pay. On an Android phone it’s Google Wallet, which most people still call Google Pay. Both are free, both are already built into the phone, and once they’re set up they’re quicker and safer than the card in your pocket.

Let’s walk through what it is, which one you have, how to set it up, and where it works around Australia.

What paying with your phone actually means

It helps to think of it as a copy of your bank card living inside your phone. You add the card once, and from then on the phone can do the tapping instead of the card. When you pay, you hold the phone near the same machine you’d tap a card on, and it beeps in exactly the same way.

The money still comes from the same account. Your bank statement looks the same. Nothing about your account changes. The only difference is which object you hold up to the machine. Some people add just one card, others add two or three and pick which to use at the checkout, the way you might flick through cards in a wallet.

Nearly every everyday debit and credit card can be added, as long as it carries a Visa, Mastercard or eftpos symbol, which almost all of them do now. The main banks and most of the smaller ones support both wallets, so it’s worth a quick check with yours if you’re not sure.

Apple Pay or Google Pay: which one you have

You don’t choose between them. The one you use depends on the phone you already own, and it’s built in either way.

If you have an iPhone

You’ll use Apple Pay. It lives in the app called Wallet, which comes on every iPhone and has a little picture of cards on it. There’s nothing to download. If you’re not sure whether your phone is an iPhone, look at the back: an iPhone has an apple shape on it. If you want to make the phone itself easier to use, our guide on how to make an iPhone easier for seniors walks through the settings that help most.

If you have an Android phone

You’ll use Google Wallet. Samsung, Oppo, Motorola and most other non-Apple phones are Android phones, and Google Wallet comes on them ready to go. Samsung phones also have their own version called Samsung Wallet, which works the same way, so use whichever your phone opens first. If you’re weighing up a new phone, our guide to the best smartphone for seniors is a good place to start.

Setting it up

Setting up takes about five minutes and you only do it once. Have your bank card in front of you. The steps are nearly identical on both kinds of phone.

1. Open the Wallet app

On an iPhone, open Wallet. On an Android phone, open Google Wallet. Both have a card-shaped icon. Tap the plus sign, usually near the top corner, to add something.

2. Add your card

Choose to add a debit or credit card. The phone will ask you to point the camera at your card so it can read the numbers, which saves you typing them. You may need to type the three digits from the back yourself.

3. Confirm with your bank

Your bank checks it’s really you, usually by texting a code to your phone. Type that code in when asked. This is a normal step, not a scam. It only happens because you started the process yourself.

4. You’re done

The card now sits in your Wallet, ready to use. To pay in a shop, you don’t even open the app. On an iPhone you double-press the side button and look at the screen. On most Android phones you just unlock the phone and hold it near the machine. It beeps, and that’s the payment done.

Where it works in Australia

Almost everywhere you can tap a card, you can tap a phone, because they use the same tap and go system. Look for the little symbol that looks like sideways sound waves on the card machine. Australia is one of the biggest tap and go countries in the world, so you’ll find it at the supermarket, the petrol station, cafes, chemists, garden centres and most shops on the main street.

A few small places still only take cash, or have an older card machine that won’t read a phone, so it’s worth keeping a physical card or a bit of cash on hand for the odd market stall or country town shop. This is getting rarer every year, but it hasn’t vanished.

One thing worth knowing. Some shops still add a small surcharge when you pay by tapping a card or phone. Good news is on the way, though. The Reserve Bank has confirmed that from 1 October 2026 these surcharges on eftpos, Visa and Mastercard payments will be banned right across Australia. Until then you may still see the odd “card surcharge” sign, and it applies whether you tap a card or a phone, so it isn’t a reason to avoid paying by phone.

Is it safe?

This is the part that surprises people: paying by phone is safer than handing over a card, not riskier. Here’s why.

When you tap your phone, the shop never receives your real card number. The phone makes up a stand-in number for that one payment, so even if a dishonest business or a faulty machine captured it, the number would be useless to anyone else. Your actual card details stay locked inside the phone and are never shown on the screen.

On top of that, no payment happens unless the phone knows it’s you. It checks your face, your fingerprint or your passcode every time. If your phone were lost or stolen, a stranger couldn’t tap it to pay for their shopping, because it won’t work without you. A plain contactless card, by contrast, will pay for small amounts for whoever is holding it.

The usual sensible habits still apply. Keep a screen lock on your phone, don’t share your passcode, and if you ever lose the phone you can freeze the cards in it through your bank. Scammers won’t come at you through the tap itself, but they do try other tricks, which is why it’s worth keeping your online banking safe and having a read through our scam safety guides.

If a car park or cafe asks you to point your phone camera at a QR code instead of tapping, our guide on how to scan a QR code walks you through it.