Boon offers a virtual prepaid card that can be instantly added to your Apple Pay wallet and then topped up by Faster Payments (free) or 3D-Secure-supported card for a fee (but doesn’t support 3DS so that’s irrelevant anyway).
Their basic offering offers topping up to 200£/month, and there’s a “Plus” offering apparently, I am not sure about which fees (if any) apply. According to their pricing page there are monthly fees however the first 12 months are free (but I’m not sure whether this corresponds to the basic or Plus offer, or both). In any case 12 months should be enough for to support Apple Pay on their own!
I’m going to give this a test drive I’ll load it up to the max top-up level and go on a shopping spree. Will report back.
Faster Payment top-ups are indeed fast and seem to be processed automatically, as I’ve just sent some money from my and it arrived in about an hour (probably less but I didn’t check earlier).
The app is a disaster though, it’s one of these Javascript-based cross-platform apps. The design language is awful and looks out of place on iOS - just look at the following Android-style modal. The worst is that their product is iOS-only (no mention of Android on their site), so why did they even bother with a lower-grade cross-platform app instead of just writing it natively for iOS?
At the very least once the card is added to your wallet you don’t have to suffer through this atrocious color scheme. It also asks for a PIN or Touch ID, even though the payment card itself is unlocked as soon as you unlock the phone (that’s OS-defined behavior, thankfully they can’t change that) - so whoever they’re trying to defend against can happily empty out your card just fine but for some reason needs to be prevented from accessing the app…
I had boon very early on - what a disaster from start to finish.
They decided I wasn’t allowed to send money from revolut to the boon card but it took them nearly 2 months of constant hassling to get them to send it back.
Having used Boon I would honestly have to recommend that everybody steer clear of it.
You’d be much better using a legacy account that supports Apple Pay for the time being, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes available here at Monzo anyway.
I didn’t mean use a credit card to top up boon, rather I’d use my credit card through apple pay as a purchase and just pay off my card instead of using boon.
Their terrible website has a grey ‘iOS/Android’ switch at the top which leads to an Android duplicate of the site, and there is a play store app that is not compatible with anything recent.
Thats their Irish site you’ve linked to. If you go to their uk site, there’s no such switch, as they don’t support Android pay in the UK.
It looks like it’s compatible with Android 4.4+, but if you have a UK play store account, it’ll show as incompatible, as they don’t support Android in the UK
i have registered in Boon. with Ireland as my region in iphone. but registered with Kuwait Mobile number. when i try to register my boon. Mastercard to apple pay first level complete. when i agree the terms and condition it says Card not added - "contact your card issuer for more information. - Add a card later or Try Again.
I just use Starling for this exact thing - look at the total, faster payment the money from Monzo to Starling. Still less hassle than putting my card details and addresses into whatever app.
I was just looking at the Fitbit pay banks list, and it looks like Boon was recently added to support Fitbit pay. I’ve got it all set up on my watch, though it was a laugh seeing that the terms and conditions that appeared in the Fitbit app was for Apple Pay - I’m going to do a scheduled transfer to it weekly from my Monzo account while I wait for direct support for it from Monzo (hopefully )
it was a laugh seeing that the terms and conditions that appeared in the Fitbit app was for Apple Pay
Their UX is an absolute nightmare indeed, it’s as if they’ve never even tried their own app. But at least the technology behind it works (anyone got a clue which card processor they’re using?) and you don’t have to actually interact with their app all that often.
Well, I asked why they had it on Android Pay in Ireland but not UK, and when it would come out in UK for Android.
This is their reply…I will leave you to comment what you think of their reply. Personally I felt it avoided answering the question and made me less likely to want to try their service.
Dear Sir / Madame,
Thank you for contacting our service team and for your interest in our product.
In regards to your enquiry about boon. Ireland and boon. UK we would like to inform you that the regulations of boon. product are different depending on the countries. We kindly recommend you to choose the option which suits you the best.
We Wish you a nice weekend.
Should you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by replying directly to this email, including our original email and your ticket number.
Kind regards
Pooneh Pilvar Service Team
Service address: Wirecard Card Solutions Limited Boon Service Postfach 31 05 44 04163 Leipzig Germany
There is no regulation what so ever that would allow one mobile payments platform but not the other one; they’re all regulated the same way as an e-money institution. The law doesn’t know nor care whether they provide Apple Pay, Android Pay or, let’s not forget, FitBit Pay.
doesn’t support 3DS so that’s irrelevant anyway).
and it arrived in about an hour (probably less but I didn’t check earlier). 
- I’m going to do a scheduled transfer to it weekly from my Monzo account while I wait for direct support for it from Monzo (hopefully 
)
