Samsung Pay launches in U.S.
Samsung Pay, the handset maker's answer to Apple Pay, went live in the U.S. Monday. The mobile payment system differentiates itself as being useable in more places than its competitors, and early reports are pretty positive.
What makes Samsung Pay different from Apple Pay and Android Pay is that it doesn't require stores to have special NFC (near field communication) terminal. It can be used virtually anywhere you can swipe a credit card. It combines the NFC technology used in Apple Pay with magnetic secure transmission (MST), which makes your phone work at old school card stripe readers, and newer ones made for chip cards. The caveat: The machine has to be one that swipes a card, not one that requires you to dip and remove it.
It works similarly to the mobile payment systems already on the market: Swipe or tap to launch the app, unlock with a fingerprint, hover to pay.
Samsung said that in the first month after its early release in the company's home country of South Korea, it had been used to make more than $30 million worth of purchases.
Our partners at CNET took Samsung for a pre-launch test drive, to solid results.
"In two weeks of using Samsung Pay in stores around San Francisco, I found that it was accepted almost everywhere," CNET's Lexy Savvides wrote. "These included vendors using Square readers; NFC terminals in major chain retailers like Trader Joe's and Walgreens; and magnetic stripe readers in smaller stores. Merchants may still require you to sign a receipt for the transaction."
One iPad-based payment terminal called Shopkeep wasn't able to complete Samsung Pay transactions. A Samsung spokesperson told CNET, "We are constantly updating Samsung Pay to work with the vast majority of card readers -- unlike every other mobile payment option which only work with a limited number."
It will, however, only work with a limited number of phones. Right now, it's available on Samsung's latest models, the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note5. The next Samsung Gear S2 smartwatch, which launches Oct. 2, will support NFC but not MST payments.
At launch, it was also compatible with cards from American Express, Mastercard and Visa, and cards issued by Bank of America, Citi, U.S. Bank and private issuers such as Synchrony Financial. It is supported for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular customers.