Michael Grothaus 05/12/2017 - 2:30pm

It’s Apple’s PayPal competitor and it's called Apple Pay Cash

PayPal, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay. Everyone is getting in on the digital payments bandwagon. It seems all the tech companies are trying their hardest to replace cash. And why should cash stick around forever? As Recode points out: “For all its worth, money, unlike cash, is nothing but an intangible idea, its value expressed by anything we choose — from cowry shells to bear skins to metal coins. Today, we embrace money’s intangibility as pixels on a screen. We accept digital money in nearly all fiscal functions — from purchasing bonds and stocks, to managing checking and savings accounts, to simply splitting a dinner bill — removing the need for physical money.”

The removal of the need for physical money is one step closer thanks to Apple’s release of Apple Pay Cash, introduced in iOS 11.2, which just shipped to user this week. But what is Apple Pay Cash–and how can you get some? Here’s everything you need to know.

Apple Pay Cash: What Is It?

Apple Pay Cash is an expansion of Apple’s Apple Pay digital payment service, which stores your credit and debit cards in your iPhone. But Apple Pay Cash is different. It’s a digital card/account that lives on your iPhone. This virtual debit card can store money you put on it and you can use it to pay for goods and services anywhere that accepts Apple Pay payments–whether that’s websites or contactless terminals in off licenses.

Though you can use the Apple Pay Cash card virtually anywhere that accepts Apple Pay payments, the service is really set up to be a peer-to-peer payment system allowing friends and family to easily send money to one another through iMessage.

Apple Pay Cash: How Does It Work?

You first need to set up your Apple Pay Cash card on iOS 11.2. You’ll need to link it to a debit or credit card and then transfer money from one of those cards onto your Apple Pay Cash card. You can find out how to set up your Apple Pay Cash card here. Once you’ve set it up all you need to do is then launch the Apple Pay Cash mini-app in iMessages or tell Siri to use Apple Pay Cash to pay one of your friends and they’ll be texted the virtual money, which they then accept and the funds you sent are deducted from your Apple Pay Cash balance and added to theirs.

Apple Pay Cash: Where Does It Work?

Apple Pay Cash works wherever Apple Pay is accepted. This means you can use money on your Apple Pay Cash card to pay for iTunes purchases or show at tens of thousands of websites and brick-and-mortar retailers. You can also deposit the balance on your Apple Pay Cash card into your linked current account, meaning you can convert the digital currency into real, hard cash.

Apple Pay Cash: Are There Fees?

If you are stocking your Apple Pay Cash card with funds from a current debit account, there are no fees. If you are using a linked credit card to fund your Apple Pay Cash balance a 3% transaction fee will apply.

Apple Pay Cash: What Devices Support It?

Apple Pay Cash is only available to those in the U.S. at the moment, but it should roll out to more countries in 2018. Apple Pay Cash works with the following devices:

• iPhone SE
• iPhone 6 and later
• iPad Pro
• iPad 5th generation
• iPad Air 2
• iPad Mini 3 and later
• Apple Watch