Photo credit: Samsung.
Samsung Pay, Samsung’s mobile cashless payments system, will be available in Singapore by June 16, the company announced today.
Owners of Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards issued by POSB, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered, and Citibank will be able to use the service. Obviously, they need to be Samsung smartphone owners as well. Samsung Pay will be initially available for the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S7, and Galaxy S7 Edge.
Samsung Pay users can pay with their phones at almost any outlet that accepts credit cards.
Samsung Pay uses Magnetic Secure Transmission technology, which means it can be used in traditional card swiping payment terminals by simulating a credit card swipe. It also works in contactless payment terminals through its near field communication component. Essentially, Samsung Pay users can pay with their phones at almost any outlet that accepts credit cards from the above-mentioned banks.
Samsung Pay launched in China at the end of March and is also available in Korea, the US, and Spain.
Competitor Apple Pay launched in Singapore in April, initially only for American Express customers. Now it’s also available to customers of POSB, DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered, and UOB, and Visa and Mastercard owners.
It’s unknown when Google’s payment system, Android Pay, will make it to these shores, with Google only saying “soon.”
Meanwhile, Singaporeans have additional options in the forms of payment apps like Singtel’s Dash, which recently relaunched with new features.
Editing by Nadine Freischlad and Judith Balea
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