Samsung Pay Mobile Wallet to Launch Sept. 28

Swipe. Secure. Hover. Pay. This is how Samsung characterizes its new mobile wallet, Samsung Pay, set to launch in the U.S. on September 28.

Swipe. Secure. Hover. Pay. This is how Samsung characterizes its new mobile wallet, Samsung Pay, set to launch in the U.S. on September 28. According to the company’s website, Samsung Pay is a simple, secure tap-to-pay system that will work just about anywhere that you can swipe a credit or debit card. The mobile wallet doesn’t store or share payment information, so Samsung says it is more secure than other systems.Digital Trends said Samsung Pay is easy to use. First, a user adds credit, debit and loyalty cards to their Samsung Pay compatible phone. To use the mobile wallet, they swipe up from the bezel to turn on the Samsung Pay app, choose the card they want to use, and then authenticate the purchase with a fingerprint.So far, Samsung has partnered with a number of companies to broaden its reach, including banks, mobile carriers, MasterCard, Visa and American Express. Currently, Verizon is the only holdout among major cellular carriers, but as the launch date nears, we anticipate Samsung will have signed other partners, including, perhaps, Verizon.

Samsung Pay Partnerships

 Samsung Pay won’t cost anything extra for users that have Samsung Pay compatible phones including the Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung Notes and Galaxy S6 Edge & S6. Similar to other mobile wallets, Samsung Pay can store loyalty card and gift cards, reported The Verge.Samsung is encouraging retailers to accept Samsung Pay by offering a free merchant kit, and the company says that the mobile wallet works with most card readers, including terminals with magnetic stripes, NFC and EMV. Samsung Pay will work at more stores than Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay, which has not yet been launched, though it doesn’t look like Samsung Pay will work at ATMs and gas pumps, The Verge said.George Wallner, the technology’s creator and co-founder of LoopPay which Samsung acquired earlier this year, told Re/code he has been testing Samsung Pay over the last eight months. Instead of using a credit or debit card, he used Samsung Pay for more than 5,000 transactions. Beta users in the U.S. (Aug. 25) and Korea (Aug. 20) will be able to test it for themselves later this month, prior to the product’s official launch.Apple Pay and Android transmit payments via NFC technology, whereas Samsung Pay will use wireless technology that mimics a card swipe in addition to NFC. This means old and new card readers will work using Samsung Pay, making the new technology more attractive to merchants.In its analysis of the new payment system, Re/code questions whether businesses will accept the new system. The challenge is getting business owners to understand that customers can securely check out using their phone, especially for merchants who have an old checkout system or that don’t use NFC technology.Insider Take:We agree with Re/code that getting merchants to try Samsung Pay will be the first hurdle to overcome. They are already having to adapt to EMV chip technology; this gives them one more payment concern to manage. However, Samsung has gone about it smartly by using new technology that is more secure and that works with both old and new systems. This removes some of the cost and learning curve up front.What we find more interesting is how Samsung and Apple will compete – again. Vanity Fair’s “The Great Smartphone War,” Kurt Eichenwald describes “the bloodiest corporate wars in history.” Though Apple had a head start with Apple Pay, it looks like Samsung Pay may be superior, because of its use of secure technology but also because it has made it easy for merchants to use the Samsung mobile wallet without having to change its checkout systems. In simpler terms, Samsung Pay can be used in more places than Apple Pay. That seems like a big win for Samsung.John Heggestuen, a research analyst at Business Insider, told CBS News, “It’s huge. If you start to use Samsung Pay, you’ll be able to use it everywhere.”   

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