Along with the announcement of their new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ today, Samsung made another exciting announcement about its plans to launch Samsung Pay in the US on September 28. Samsung also announced the select US users of their Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 will be able to participate in a beta trial starting August 25 ahead of the September 28 official launch. Samsung Pay will be preloaded on select Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 devices and a free software upgrade will roll out beginning mid-August to enable Samsung Pay on existing Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge devices in the US and Korea.
InJong Rhee, EVP of Samsung Electronics, Global Head of Samsung Pay said, “The future of mobile payments has arrived. We are partnering with card networks, issuers and acquirers, and Samsung Pay will also be the first to support contactless payment for store-branded credit cards. The list of partners will only grow.” As many of the Samsung Pay partners echoed these thoughts on the importance of mobile payments – Gaylon Jowers, Jr., senior executive vice president, TSYS said, “We expect the adoption of mobile payments to change the payments landscape. We are excited to be on the leading edge in collaboration with industry stalwarts like Samsung through technologies like Samsung Pay.”
Michelle Moore, head of digital banking at Bank of America summed it up very nicely in looking at how mobile payments will affect our daily lives when she said, “Emerging technologies are impacting the way our nearly 18 million active mobile customers pay for everyday items, and we’re focused on delivering new solutions to help simplify their financial lives. Samsung Pay is a great example of this commitment, allowing customers to do more with their mobile devices and manage their finances when, where and how they want.”
What makes Samsung Pay stand out from other mobile banking apps is that it can be used at any retailer that can currently take your credit card and swipe it through a reader – which means that almost any store you go in to make a purchase can use Samsung Pay. To make a payment using Samsung Pay, users can simply swipe up, scan their fingerprint and pay. Because Samsung Pay uses tokenization, Samsung Knox and fingerprint authentication…you can be assured that your transaction is safe and secure – this greatly reduces the risks of using a plastic card. Between the Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies, Samsung Pay will work virtually anywhere you can swipe your credit card.