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Samsung Pay launches in China with nine banks supported from today

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Samsung has announced that its mobile wallet service Samsung Pay has launched in China today, with nine banks supported initially, reports ZDNet. The move follows a deal struck with state-owned card-processor Union Pay at the end of last year.

Samsung Pay currently supports select credit and debit cards of nine major banks in China: China CITIC Bank, China Construction Bank, China Everbright Bank, China Guangfa Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd, China Merchants Bank, Hua Xia Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Ping An Bank.

Samsung Pay is supported by the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 Edge Plus and Galaxy S7/Edge.

The move comes six weeks after rival service Apple Pay launched in China.

Android Pay set to arrive in the UK by the end of next month

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Mobile contactless payments are progressively becoming more and more mainstream as major manufacturers adopt systems that can be easily used via our smartphones. While LG Pay is yet to be seen in action, Google, Apple and even Samsung all have a technology – Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, respectively – that allows a user to complete transactions thanks to the NFC chips contained in most recent devices.

To this day, however, Apple Pay was the only service active in the United Kingdom, leaving a good number of consumers out of the industry, as more than half of the smartphones sold in the country run Android. According to a Telegraph report, however, sources close to the matter have confirmed that Android Pay should go live across Britain within the end of next month, approximately six months after the original US debut…


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Samsung Pay coming to China as company signs deal with card-processor UnionPay

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Samsung Pay will be available in China “as soon as early 2016” after the company signed a deal with card-processor UnionPay. The deal was an essential step as UnionPay has a monopoly on payment terminals in China. Apple yesterday announced its own deal with the company for Apple Pay.

Injong Rhee, Executive Vice President at Samsung Electronics said, “The collaboration with China UnionPay, coupled with the support from major UnionPay partner banks in China, will bring this secure and easy-to-use mobile payment solution to more Samsung mobile users.”

The deal will allow Samsung Pay users to use both swipe and contactless payment terminals, but there is still some red-tape to overcome first …


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Samsung Pay now works with 19 new cards, including PNC Visa and KeyBank MasterCard

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Samsung has announced that its Samsung Pay service has added 19 new card issuers in the USA, including ‘eligible’ PNC Visa credit and debit cards and KeyBank MasterCard credit and debit cards. The new banks and credit unions were first promised back in October.

New Visa issuers supported include TCF Bank, Central Florida Educators Federal Credit Union, Financial Center Federal Credit Union, Greater Kinston Federal Credit Union, Keypoint Credit Union, Numerica Credit Union, Utah Community Credit Union, Amegy Bank National Association, California Bank and Trust and Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Additional new MasterCard issuers supported include Achieva Credit Union, Associated Bank, Bayport Credit Union, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Cambridge Savings Bank, USC Credit Union and Navy Federal Credit Union.

A full list of supported cards and banks can be found here.

There’s still time to get a free $50 Best Buy gift card by activating the mobile payment service before the end of the year.

Samsung will give you a $50 Best Buy gift card if you activate Samsung Pay

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Samsung really wants you to use its new payments service, and they’re even willing to give you a $50 Best Buy gift card if you get on board. To get the free gift card, you need to register on Samsung’s website and activate Samsung Pay on an eligible device between Friday, November 20th and the end of the year.

The eligible devices include Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (of any configuration). You can get the Samsung Pay app on the Play Store, and you need to register at least 1 qualifying card within the app.

Samsung Pay finally available to Verizon users with a Galaxy S6/edge/edge+ or Note 5

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With Verizon’s logo notably absent from the list of Samsung Pay U.S. launch partners, it had been unclear if or when the company might allow its customers to use the service. That uncertainty has now ended, with the app available to Verizon customers in the Google Play store. Customers on other carriers have been able to download the app since August.

You’ll need to have a compatible device, which currently means either a Galaxy S6/edge/edge+ or a Note 5. It is so far supported by cards from American Express, Bank of America, Citi and US Bank … 
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No Samsung Pay customer data compromised by LoopPay hack, says Samsung

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Samsung has said that a hack at LoopPay reported in the New York Times did not compromise any of its customer data. LoopPay’s technology forms part of the company’s electronic wallet offering, Samsung Pay.

Samsung Pay was not impacted and at no point was any personal payment information at risk. This was an isolated incident that targeted the LoopPay office network, which is a physically separate network from Samsung Pay. The LoopPay incident was resolved and had nothing to do with Samsung Pay … 


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Samsung Pay Korean transactions of $30M exceed expectations, says company, in run-up to U.S. launch

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Samsung has announced that its mobile wallet service Samsung Pay has been used for more than $30M worth of transactions in its first month in the company’s home market of Korea. The company says that the number “has been beyond our expectations.”

Samsung devices are hugely popular within Korea, and the WSJ notes that the “launch was boosted by a massive advertising campaign,” so this doesn’t necessarily suggest that it will see achieve similar take-up in the U.S. when it launches on Monday – especially given the limited number of Samsung devices that support it … 
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Samsung Pay to “gradually expand” to non-flagship smartphones

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One of Samsung’s mobile execs has hinted that the company is planning to expand Samsung Pay to cheaper handsets eventually, according to a report by Korea Herald. Shin Jong-Kyun responded “it will gradually expand” when asked specifically if it would move the payment technology to budget handsets at some point.

At launch, Samsung Pay will only be available on the newest flagship phones. The company opened up its beta program to US consumers a couple of weeks back, and is expected to officially launch the payment service at the end of this month.

Samsung Pay is Sammy’s attempt to compete with the likes of Android Pay and Apple Pay in the mobile contactless payment market. The one thing it has on both those platforms, however, is that you can use it virtually anywhere that has a magnetic card strip readers, rather than being limited to just NFC payments like Google’s and Apple’s systems. Its biggest restriction is handset support. Once it’s officially live, Samsung Pay will only work on the Galaxy Note 5, S6 Edge plus, S6 and S6 Edge. For a company with the product portfolio Samsung has, that’s restrictive to say the least, especially if it wants Samsung Pay to become widely adopted and used frequently.

As promised, Samsung Pay beta program opens to US users

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Samsung has officially launched its mobile payment service in the US. Perhaps the only catch, apart from the fact that it’s only available to customers with the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Note 5 and S6 Edge+, is that it’s being labeled beta. As of right now, there aren’t many financial institutions supporting Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay Beta is “by special invite only” and Bank of America and U.S. Bank customers with credit, debit or small business cards you can apply as long as they have a Samsung Account.

While it may not be entirely useful today, Samsung Pay does have the potential to be more ubiquitously useful than Android Pay in retail. Reason: it not only works with NFC-equipped machines, its technology also enables it to work almost anywhere there’s a card machine with a magnetic-strip reader too. Samsung officially announced Samsung Pay at its Unpacked event in March, but had to push back the public launch to September. The service officially launches in the States in one month.

If you meet the criteria, have one of the company’s newest smartphones and want to give it a try, head on over to Samsung’s beta signup page to apply.

Sprint Galaxy S6 & S6 Edge receiving Samsung Pay, live broadcasting via YouTube, more

The service may not be launching until next month, but owners of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are now receiving an over-the-air update which includes support for Samsung Pay. The update, which you’ll need approximately 303MB of free storage to install, includes some other additions as well.

For starters, there’s support for live video broadcasting over YouTube, which has been a highly-requested ability from the video hosting platform ever since the launch of the competing Meerkat and Periscope apps. This is possible thanks to WatchMe, an open-source project by Google that allows app developers to integrate with the YouTube Data and YouTube Live Streaming APIs, among others.  There’s also higher quality audio output to Samsung headsets (those new Level On headphones, perhaps?), UI updates, and the usual bug fixes.

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Samsung Pay is Samsung’s mobile payments app and service that is different from other solutions from Google and Apple because it includes the ability to pay at nearly any credit card terminal. It does this through the use of MST technology, the same thing used in the magnetic strips on the back of all credit and debit cards.

While Samsung Pay is expected to work in far more places than Android Pay and Apple Pay currently do, Verizon Wireless here in the States is still evaluating whether or not to allow the service onto the Samsung devices it sells, according to a representative from the company speaking to 9to5Google.

The update could take several days to hit devices. You can check manually by visiting Settings > About phone > System updates.

Samsung Pay debuting in the US on Sept. 28 following Korean launch next week

Samsung Pay in action (via Engadget)

Samsung Pay in action (via <a href="http://www.engadget.com" target="_blank">Engadget</a>)

In addition to announcing new Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 smartphones today at its event, the South Korean handset maker has announced the official launch date for its mobile payment service called Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay was first demoed at an event in March and works differently than Google’s OS-level Android Pay as it uses Magnetic Secure Transmission technology based on its LoopPay acquisition that makes it widely compatible with point-of-sale terminals.

Starting a week from today, Samsung Pay will go live for the first time in South Korea enabling mobile payments from compatible Samsung devices. Following the initial rollout, Samsung Pay will go live in the United States starting September 28th.

In addition to launching in South Korea and the United States, Samsung says it’s targeting the UK, Spain, and China as the next markets to launch its mobile payment service. The mobile payment service was initially expected to go live earlier this summer.

As for availability, Samsung Pay is “preloaded on select Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 devices” while a software update coming this month will add support on Galaxy S6 and S6 edge phones. Additionally, Samsung says it will launch a limited beta for Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note5 phones starting August 25th. Full press release below:


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Samsung and MasterCard partner to bring Samsung Pay to Europe

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Samsung Pay, the manufacturer’s contactless mobile payment service, is rolling out in Europe soon thanks to a partnership with MasterCard in the EU. Once the service launches officially, card issuers will be able to enroll in MasterCard’s Digital Enablement Services (MDES), and apply the capability to all kinds of MasterCard credit, debit, prepaid credit and small business cards.

What makes Samsung Pay a different to most mobile payment services is that it works with both Magstrip and NFC POS terminals, meaning you will be able to pay virtually anywhere that has a card machine.


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Samsung Pay debut pushed back to September after promising July launch

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Samsung revealed a bit of setback today for Galaxy S6 owners hoping to get their hands on Samsung Pay this summer. As Bloomberg reports, the company announced on a call with investors today that it will miss its previous target of July for launching its mobile payment service. According to the Samsung executive, the company is now targeting sometime in September to roll out Samsung Pay in the United States and South Korea.
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Samsung Wallet is getting the boot on June 30th to make room for Samsung Pay

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Samsung has begun sending out an email to Samsung Wallet users notifying them that the service will no longer be available as of June 30th (via SamMobile). The email says that coupons clipped with Samsung Wallet will no longer be available after the termination date, but that all “tickets & reservations” will still be available by visiting partner applications…
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Samsung Pay coming to US and South Korea this summer, compatible w/ 30mill merchant locations

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Hot on the heels of unveiling the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, Samsung has also announced its venture into the mobile payment industry. Cleverly dubbed Samsung Pay, the initiative will be compatible with both of the company’s latest flagship devices. Samsung Pay will launch in the United States and South Korea this summer, with Europe and China support to come at a later date.


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