Apple Pay in the UK

In the last 4 days I have used Apple Pay here in London more times than I have in the U.S. in the last 4 weeks. 

When I was last in London in July, hardly anyone took Apple Pay as it had just launched. But this week, largely thanks to Verifone taking contactless payments, I used it for just about everything--coffee, a black cab, sandwiches, my Heathrow Express ticket, dinner, etc. 

The irony is that because the U.S. Cards are still 'chip and sign' vs 'chip and PIN', they are frankly a huge pain in the ass here, requiring the waiter or barista to run off and find a pen most times, delaying the transaction, etc. In other words, using the Apple Watch or iPhone requires no signature and is MUCH faster than not using it. 

Now if we can just get a similar widespread deployment in America...