Samsung Unveils Mobile Payment Service Samsung Pay: A Big Threat to Apple Pay

Samsung Electronics unveiled today that Samsung Pay, a secure and easy-to-use mobile payment service that can be used to make purchases nearly everywhere cards are accepted and it will launch in Korea on August 20 and in the U.S. on September 28 and Samsung plans to roll out the service in the China, U.K., and Spain, as well.

Samsung Pay will be preloaded on select Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 devices and a free software upgrade will be rolled out beginning in mid-August, to enable Samsung Pay on Galaxy S6 and S6 edge devices in the Korea and U.S.

Select U.S. users of Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, and Note5 will be able to participate in a beta trial from August 25 ahead of the September 28 launch.

How to use Samsung Pay?

To make a payment on Samsung Pay, users can simply swipe up, scan their fingerprint and pay.

Samsung Pay uses Samsung KNOX, tokenization, and fingerprint authentication to provide secure payments and reduce the security risks inherent to plastic cards.

With Magnetic Secure Transmission and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies, Samsung Pay works with most existing point of sale terminals. That means it is the only mobile payment service that works virtually anywhere you can swipe your debit or credit card.

Samsung Pay continues to strategically expand its partnership ecosystem to provide greater flexibility, access, and choice for customers. Samsung anticipates working with payment networks such as, Discover, American Express, Visa, and MasterCard and, major banks including Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Chase and key financial partners including First Data, Synchrony Financial and TSYS to extend Samsung Pay to the U.S.

Samsung anticipates working with all major Korean card companies including Samsung Cards, Woori Cards, KB Kookmin Cards, Shinhan Cards, Hyundai Cards, Lotte Cards, Hana Cards, NH Nonghyup Cards, BC Cards, and Citi Cards.