Samsung pay

What is Samsung Pay?

In today’s world moving around with a wallet that contains all your credit and debit cards inside is no longer in fashion. Several alternatives to physical payments have risen over the years, and one of them is provided by Samsung, named Samsung pay. Samsung Pay is a mobile payment system available to most Galaxy smartphone users that lets you use your smartphone to pay at retail stores worldwide. People have their phones on them more often than their credit cards and wallets, so it makes sense for them to leave their plastics cards in favor of their phones.

How does it work?

Samsung pay incorporates NFC (Near Field Communication) technology to transfer a credit or debit card’s information to an NFC-enabled payment terminal. You are making your phone work just as an NFC-enabled card would work. Samsung pay is a unique service because it also works with traditional payment terminals and card machines using MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technology. The use of MST is to support NFC, which is still a relatively new technology. MST is more common in emerging countries. 

Is Samsung Pay better than Apple Pay or Google Pay?

While these three payment services exist for the same reason and share the same functions, Samsung pay stands above Apple and Google’s alternatives as it has MST tech. Both Apple and Google Pay support only NFC technology and, as such, cannot be used in stores without proper NFC-enabled terminals to accept payments via NFC. This leaves Google and Apple in the dust as Samsung vouches that the presence of MST technology means its payment service can work at virtually any place where traditional debit or credit cards are accepted. 

How safe is Samsung pay?

Like with most digital payment services, Samsung Pay is safer than having a physical card. This is because it doesn’t store the actual card number. To phrase it simply, Samsung Pay only holds an encrypted version of the card number sent to payment terminals instead of the exact card number. The original number isn’t stored anywhere on your device; only an encrypted (virtual) number is used. No, you don’t have to create a unique encryption PIN every time you the service, your card’s regular PIN works when you pay through Samsung Pay, so it’s secure and doesn’t require you to remember any special codes. For an added layer of security, Samsung Pay also requires you to authenticate yourself on your phone before using it to make a payment. A fingerprint scan, device PIN, iris scan, or facial recognition will suffice. With these many layers of protection, you can never go wrong using Samsung Pay.

Is this service free?

The answer is a definite yes. In some cases, it isn’t just free. Some markets reward you points for using Samsung Pay for transactions. These points work as credits that can be redeemed for various products through many of Samsung Pay’s official retail partners. In some countries, you can even exchange these points for discounts on Samsung’s products. Samsung pay also has several promotions going on by its partner banks. The upgrades can range from cashback on all payments to additional reward points compared to the reward points your bank would give you if you used the physical card instead of Samsung Pay.

Where is Samsung Pay available?

Samsung Pay, since its release, has gradually expanded to several countries since it was first released. The list below contains the countries that Samsung Pay is currently available in. Some countries here don’t have a fully functional Samsung pay system. Still, they are expected to have the service available shortly. Even if a country supports Samsung pay, this doesn’t mean that all banks will have this service. Make sure to check your banks to be sure.

  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Hong Kong
  • India
  • Italy
  • Germany
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • Puerto Rico
  • Russia/Belarus
  • Singapore
  • South Korea
  • South Africa
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Taiwan
  • Thailand
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Vietnam

If your country isn’t on the list, hang back and wait for new announcements.

What devices support it?

Since it was released, Samsung Pay has been incorporated into a wide variety of Samsung smartphones. It was first only compatible with flagship phones but is now available on some mid-range devices and budget phones. Some of Samsung’s devices, like the Galaxy S6, don’t support Samsung Pay in every market as Samsung didn’t equip the machines with NFC and MST tech everywhere. As most new devices come with the necessary hardware to work with Samsung Pay in every supported country, rest assured. Below is a list of all supported devices.

  • Galaxy S6 (only in some countries)
  • Galaxy S6 edge (only in some countries)
  • Galaxy S6 edge+ (only in some countries)
  • Galaxy S6 Active
  • Galaxy S7
  • Galaxy S7 edge
  • Galaxy S7 Active
  • Galaxy Note 5
  • Galaxy Note 7 Fan Edition
  • Galaxy S8
  • Galaxy S8+
  • Galaxy S8 Active
  • Galaxy S9
  • Galaxy S9+
  • Galaxy S10e
  • Galaxy S10
  • Galaxy S10+
  • Galaxy S20
  • Galaxy S20 Plus
  • Galaxy S20 Ultra
  • Galaxy S20 Fan Edition
  • Galaxy Note 8
  • Galaxy Note 9
  • Galaxy Note 10
  • Galaxy Note 10+
  • Galaxy Note 20
  • Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
  • Galaxy A5 (2016)
  • Galaxy A7 (2016)
  • Galaxy A3 (2017)
  • Galaxy A5 (2017)
  • Galaxy A7 (2017)
  • Galaxy A8 (2016)
  • Galaxy A9 (2016)
  • Galaxy A9 Pro
  • Galaxy A8 (2018)
  • Galaxy A8 Plus (2018)
  • Galaxy A70
  • Galaxy A51
  • Galaxy A71
  • Galaxy A80
  • Galaxy J5 Pro (only in some countries)
  • Galaxy J7 Pro (only in some countries)
  • Galaxy C5 (only in China)
  • Galaxy C7 (only in China)
  • Galaxy C5 Pro (only in Hong Kong and China)
  • Galaxy C7 Pro (only in Hong Kong and China)
  • Galaxy A8 Star (only in Hong Kong and China; also called A9 Star)
  • Galaxy C9 Pro (only in Hong Kong and China)
  • Samsung W2017 (only in China)
  • Samsung W2018 (only in China)
  • Galaxy Fold
  • Galaxy Z Fold 2
  • Galaxy Z Flip

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