Samsung Pay Could Come To More Non-Premium Smartphones (cnet.com) 24
Gordon Gottsegen, writing for CNET: Samsung Pay could end up on even more devices, starting with the Galaxy J series phones in India, Mashable reports. Samsung Pay lets you save credit cards, gift cards, and other payment methods onto your smartphone and then use it when paying. Your phone mimics your cards right down to the magnetic signal, so it works in most places that accept credit cards thanks to Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) and Near Field Communication (NFC). Just tap your device against the payment terminal and you're generally good to go. But only if you've owned a premium smartphone. Samsung Pay generally only features in pricier phones like the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy s7 Edge, though it has also come to the Galaxy A line and Samsung Gear S watches. Now, according to Mashable's sources, Samsung has quietly been adding the technology to cheaper phones too, and plans to experiment with the idea in India -- where Samsung Pay recently launched -- in the next few months. Makes perfect sense. In places such as India, the vast majority of card terminals (PoS) don't support NFC, and it is very difficult to convince a merchant to upgrade their terminals. There are two reasons for this: first, not a lot of payments services require NFC. For all they care, their existing PoS devices support credit cards and debit cards. Second is, payment terminals with NFC are expensive. Also, smart of Samsung to trickle this feature into its lower-end smartphones.
Be veerrry cautious... (Score:1)
I heard Samsung's CEO is in jail for "Samsung Pay"
Bank on It (Score:1)
More smart phones than before the banks jumped on the Android pay stuff and stopped the system around 5 years ago?
Terrific news (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
On my S5, Android Pay seems to have gotten broken by the Marshmallow update. Every time I try and use it, the damned thing hounds me for the administrative password. And this is despite the fact that I used my fingerprint to unlock the phone.
So the stupid thing is basically unusable now. Simply not worth the effort. Samsung Pay seems like a joke to me, so I just pay cash or use EMV.
Re: (Score:2)
Samsung. No thank you! You put more than enough crapware on your phones as it is and with verizon all that shit is locked down unless I want to root a phone. Please DO NOT put more crapware on my phone.
This++
Can't uninstall it. Can't permanently disable it. All you can do is remember to go in there and force stop on two seperate services every time you reboot the phone, or every time it decides you really want it turned back on and something does it for you.
And it's not just any crapware, it's wireless remote payment crapware. What could possibly go wrong?
Re: (Score:2)
It's a feature specifically for your bottom line -- to get a little slice of every transaction.
Samsung does NOT add an extra fee on the transaction, contrary to Apple (who charges $0.15 per transaction). Samsung doesn't make money with Samsung Pay, they do it just to make their device more convenient and more popular.
But even if they were adding a fee, technically that would be a feature for the top line (revenue growth), not specifically the bottom line (profit growth). Sometimes the top line helps the bottom line, but not always; for instance, the more rides Uber gets, the more their top line grows
Anyone else (Score:2)
Anyone else read that as Samsung Pry?
What the fuck is Samsung Pay? (Score:2)
Serious question (maybe the wrong place to ask it): What is Samsung Pay?
I have a Galaxy S7 but one of my main problems with it is that it's piled with so much crap that I don't know how to use (or turn off). My assumption was that Samsung Pay was just another of Samsung's attempts to do something that some other thing (like Android Pay) already does, but in its own, Samsung-y way. So I've pretty much ignored it. Now I seem to be hearing that Samsung Pay even works if the checkout terminal doesn't have NFC?
Re: (Score:3)
Alright, even though Google is a thing that you should know how to use by now, I'll go ahead and bite.
Samsung Pay is an electronic payment method similar to Apple Pay or Android Pay. It comes pre-loaded on high-end Samsung phones. One of its key differentiators is that it can use the MST magnetic coil in the back of the phone to mimic swiping your physical credit card through a card reader. This means it works at all of those terminals that don't yet have NFC readers built-in. Given the (relative) lack o
Biggest obstacle to NFC (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I've found that many small businesses that used to have NFC capability lost it when they did the upgrades to accept EMV (chip cards) and didn't spend the extra to also get NFC. So several places where I used to use Apple Pay no longer accept it (or any NFC).
Re: (Score:2)
Why is NFC being adopted on various POS devices yet there is no training of the front-end clerks as to the fact that NFC-based payments are being accepted?
Because front-end clerks are disposable resources and NFC hasn't reached yet the threshold that justifies additional training. Keep in mind that many fast food chains and car services are actively working on solutions that would replace low wage workers. There's no incentive to train people.