Compare credit cards that work with Samsung Pay. Apply for a card below.
Samsung Pay is a digital wallet and mobile payment system designed for use with phones and smart watches produced by Samsung. It converts a credit or debit card’s chip and PIN into a digital format and securely stores the information in the device, allowing it to communicate with contactless point of sale equipment in order to authorise a purchase.
No. It depends on the card provider. Westpac, ANZ, American Express and Citi are the major credit card providers currently offering Samsung Pay on some of their cards.
Samsung Pay is compatible with Samsung Galaxy S6 phones and later models, and Samsung Gear smart watches model S2 onwards. You will need to activate Samsung Pay on each device on which you want to use it.
Most Samsung devices will have Samsung Pay already installed (otherwise, download the app from the Google play store).
On your phone, you will be guided through the process of choosing your authentication method (fingerprint, iris scan or PIN), followed by a video with instructions on how to use your phone to scan your credit card details and have them approved by your bank.
For your Samsung Gear smart watch, you’ll need to select Samsung Pay using the Gear Manager on your Samsung phone or other device, and then set a four digit PIN on your Gear watch before scanning the credit card with your phone. Once again, you will find video tutorials detailing the next steps on both your Samsung phone and your Gear watch.
There are also detailed instructional videos available on YouTube.
Samsung Pay accepts iris scan, fingerprint (TouchID) and PIN authentication, while Apple Pay has fingerprint authentication only and Google Pay™ has PIN authentication only, unless you have an Android phone which supports TouchID.
But the main difference is that Samsung Pay will work with MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) as well as NFC, so it’s compatible with older terminals originally designed for embedded chip or even magnetic stripe cards.
For a Samsung phone, open Samsung Pay, select the card you wish to pay with, verify your identity using your chosen method, then place the back of your phone on the card or NFC reader on the payment terminal.
With a Gear watch, press and hold the top ‘Back’ button to bring up Samsung Pay, enter your PIN, select the card you want to use, then tap your Gear watch onto the payment terminal.
Like other mobile payment systems, Samsung Pay does not store your credit card number on your phone. Instead, it generates a different ‘token’ number each time you make a purchase transaction. And since transactions have to be authorised by your fingerprint, iris scan or PIN, no one else can use your phone to make purchases, even if it is lost or stolen.
You may not see any Samsung or Samsung Pay logo on display, but since Samsung Pay uses both NFC (Near Field Communication) and MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission), there a very strong likelihood that Samsung Pay will work wherever you want to use it.
Samsung Pay is more likely to work overseas, when compared with other mobile payment systems, because it is compatible with not only the latest NFC payment terminals but also terminals relying on older technology.
No. Many credit cards are enabled for Google’s Android Pay and for Apple Pay as well as, or instead of, Samsung Pay.
