Fitbit Pay UK availability

[SunsetRunner]

Why am I unable to add a card to my Fitbit Pay wallet?

Is Fitbit Pay not available in the UK yet?

Thanks.

[N8teGee]

Another vote here for Starling Bank. No issues at all, card was sent quickly and setup on the Ionic was problem free. I'm not yet ready to leave my main bank, but it's always nice to have options. 

[DustyUK]

Try UK, only bank choice is Starling, and I have never even heard of it

[ionic-jo]

I have email my bank Royal Bank of Scotland, asking this question's

Are they aware of this device, fitbit Ionic, and the ability for the watch to have contactless payment

Do they have a date which debit card customers, will be able to use the ionic as a contactless payment method

My email has now been passed onto the required department, and hopefully will get a reply soon

[RyanT79]

So Santander works in EMEA, which includes the UK. So does Santander work in the UK using FitBitPay?

[SunsetRunner]

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@RyanT79 wrote:

So Santander works in EMEA, which includes the UK. So does Santander work in the UK using FitBitPay?

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Not at present

[malgpz900]

Is Fitbit pay available in the UK yet? I cannot load cards into my wallet, keep getting an error.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @malgpz900, there is only one bank in the UK signed up with Fitbit Pay so far, so you can only use their card.  The bank is a startup last spring, I think, called Starling.  A few users in this forum have opened accounts with it to try out Fitbit Pay and they seem to be reasonably happy so far.

I get BA air miles with my Amex card so I like to use it for all my purchases, so haven't tried out Starling.  Hopefully there will be more banks signed up in the UK soon.

[malgpz900]

Thanks Julia_g. I've spent most of today with fitbit support trying to resolve the problem. I cannot even get the wallet opened to enter a card. At least I know now it not worth bothering with until my banks signs up to it.

[SunsetRunner]

OK, just did my first payment today with my Ionic and the Starling card on my Fitbit wallet. It  all worked pretty well. Had to enable an account at the Starling bank but it was fairly simple.

[malgpz900]

Problem solved. You have to lock the phone screen with a pin number first.

[Narcissus]

One of the deciding factors for me buying the Ionic was the Android pay facility. Obviously, after I bought it I find it doesn't work "yet". Frequent update alerts from the Play store build my hopes then dash them again as the wallet is added to the "account" menu, then removed with an ensuing update, then added with another update then removed then rinse and repeat.
 This was not my first smartwatch or fitness band; I was an early adopter for Pebble, Microsoft Band etc. and years down the line it's the Ionic that feels the most "Beta". That is to say, the most unfinished, promise breaking garbage I have ever bought. £300 of fitness tracker that is as capable as your average £40 tracker. 

 I regret buying it and will not buy another fitbit product.

[SunsetRunner]

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@Narcissus wrote:

One of the deciding factors for me buying the Ionic was the Android pay facility. Obviously, after I bought it I find it doesn't work "yet". Frequent update alerts from the Play store build my hopes then dash them again as the wallet is added to the "account" menu, then removed with an ensuing update, then added with another update then removed then rinse and repeat.
 This was not my first smartwatch or fitness band; I was an early adopter for Pebble, Microsoft Band etc. and years down the line it's the Ionic that feels the most "Beta". That is to say, the most unfinished, promise breaking garbage I have ever bought. £300 of fitness tracker that is as capable as your average £40 tracker. 

 I regret buying it and will not buy another fitbit product.

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Where does it say Ionic supports or will support Android Pay?
I run mine on Starling Bank in the UK

[Marek.P]

Same problem here, 

i feel cheated by fit bit not for the first time, just upgraded from charge 2 to ionic as my charge got faulty and I was about to switch as Fitbit gave me an option of having my faulty charge 2 replaced or get 50% of any new Fitbit tracker, chose to go for the discount and take ionic, surprisingly when I chose that I got automated email that this offer does not include ionic, I’ve sent them message and they admitted that it was not clear on the first email and they ionic is not a tracker as it’s got all the extra features, so I did get this anyway and pay the premium price for it and what a surprise it does not support payments in UK and it was very frustraiting to get the music downloaded on it. It is only my second day I got it so maybe with time it will get better and hopefully we get more apps available. 

[Dubebug]

I just had my ionic delivered only to find out contactless isn't enabled in the UK, I feel a bit mislead given that was the main reason I've upgraded from the surge. When can Fitbit confirm some mainstream banks in the UK will be activated, if this isn't known can I return the watch? Thanks

[bbarrera]

Nobody knows. 

Apple Pay just added almost 40 more banks and credit unions the other day, for over 2000 institutions in 3 years. Android Pay has over 1000, can’t remember if those are US only or worldwide. 

Fitbit has a lot of work to do, even in the US my two cards are from top 10 banks and not supported yet. 

[Dubebug]

I just had my ionic delivered only to find out contactless isn't enabled in the UK, I feel a bit mislead given that was the main reason I've upgraded from the surge. When can Fitbit confirm some mainstream banks in the UK will be activated, if this isn't known can I return the watch? Thanks

[Colinm39]

@bbarreraWhen you read the Wikipedia on Apple Pay, Apple started in 2013 as you mentioned, then the impetus built up through 2015-2016. So, how can we expect Fitbit to replicate that in a few months.

In Australia one of our Major banks is not offering the service. They, with three others are now planning their own Pay system even though three of those banks are in Fitbit Pay.

Fortunately I'm with the ANZ, and after about 300 tap and pay, and  4 failures, 2 data transmission and 2 thinking it was a "hot" card, all is going well.  I put he hot card down to data transmission .

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@bbarrera wrote:

Nobody knows. 

Apple Pay just added almost 40 more banks and credit unions the other day, for over 2000 institutions in 3 years. Android Pay has over 1000, can’t remember if those are US only or worldwide. 

Fitbit has a lot of work to do, even in the US my two cards are from top 10 banks and not supported yet. 

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[bbarrera]

At least in the USA, both Apple and Google have blazed trails and Fitbit Pay should be able to ramp faster. 

[Marek.P]

So now having Ionic for few days I can say few more things. Battery won’t last 4 days for sure have charged it fullly on Sunday and now was left in about 11-12% and it was on power save mode for a while so doubt it would last whole night, only used GPS twice for a short runs 40min in total, so not much of gps eating the battery. Still 3 days is fine, keep in mind charging take much longer than charge 2. Second thing is very few apps and Strava somehow is showing that there are no recorded runs, it does work on the phone even when you run without it so that’s fine but other than having gps and music on it so far it doesn’t really do much more than charge 2. So probably would not recommend it against any other smart watch at least until Fitbit get their act together and start actually work on it and update the features so it can be callled smartwatch or whatever they want to call it as at the moment many things that were promised in promo video are not there. Fitbit pay in UK practically inexistent just to master cards from pretty much uncommon banks in UK so not sure how many people actually using those.

[SunsetRunner]

To be honest, I had the ability to pay with Apple Watch and Samsung Gear too, never used it.

It maybe a nice to have but a card isn't exactly wieldy to carry with you either, depends on your requirements i guess, if you want to run with no extra baggage so to speak.

Having had both other major manufacturers smart watches,  they all have their flaws.