How do I fix messages after iPhone 7 iOS update to 11.2.1? Apple Pay pop up now prevents me from reading or sending messages

Okay folks, I have the answer for you. My husband had the problem and called Apple Support:

Go to Settings>Wallet and Apple Pay. Turn off Apple Pay Cash and your problem will be resolved. This setting doesn’t exist in the prior version, so they obviously goofed up the update...

The response from Barb13... worked for me too. Slight addition to that is when I went to Settings>Wallet and Apple Pay, I needed to actually continue and setup Apple Pay (it wasn't previously 'on'), then 'Agree' with the usual conditions, then when it prompted for a Debit card, I clicked 'Later'. Then it opened a 'main' screen of sorts with options, one of which was the slide toggle for turning off Apple Pay. After all that, the $28 message *still* dominated. But as another post indicated, you can hit the 'Continue' on the $28 message and (at least once all the above was done) the message just cleared and didn't come back. (Very strange of Apple to mess up like this. Looks suspiciously like a rushed 'user story' during a rushed 'sprint' to deploy by the Holidays. Sigh. I thought they were above all that.)

I have this very same problem and it’s quite frustrating. How do we get Apple to assist with this?

I’m using an iPhone 6s

I’m having this exact problem on my iPhone 7. Cannot send or receive texts, and it started immediately after installing the update. Help!