Samsung is expanding its mobile payment solution to the United Kingdom starting today, the company announced. Consumers residing in the UK can now acquire the Samsung Pay application on their Samsung devices through the official Galaxy Apps store and start using the service throughout the country. Visa and Mastercard cards issued by Nationwide, Santander, and MBNA are currently supported by the service, while those from HSBC, M&S Bank, First Direct, and American Express will be supported “soon.”
Samsung Pay first debuted in South Korea back in August 2015, and since then the service continued to expand into new regions, including the United States. The platform was released in a handful of other countries throughout 2016, including China, Spain, Brazil, Russia, Canada, and Australia. Since the beginning of 2017, Samsung Pay was also introduced in Malaysia and India, while earlier in April this year, Sweden, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates have all joined the list of countries offering support for Samsung’s mobile payments system. The United Kingdom is the latest addition to Samsung Pay’s ecosystem, and unlike the platform’s release in Hong Kong and Switzerland last month, this doesn’t appear to be a beta launch. Having said that, Samsung smartphone users in the UK who happen to own devices compatible with Samsung Pay can now download the application from the Galaxy Apps store and sign up for the service. However, considering the fact that the app was launched earlier today without Samsung sharing many details about the event, there is a chance that the registration process won’t go without a hitch in the first few hours of availability.
As far as device compatibility is concerned, Samsung Pay previously required a smartphone from the Samsung Galaxy S or Galaxy Note series running Android 5.0 Lollipop or higher, though the service should soon be compatible with select Galaxy J models, as well as the Galaxy E5 that already support it in other countries, and the same goes for the Samsung Gear S2 and Gear S3 smartwatches. As for the platform itself, Samsung Pay is expected to continue expanding into other regions over the course of this year, while more details on its availability will likely follow shortly.