Thursday, August 13, 2015

The Transport Guy: There's still a big problem with Samsung Pay

Steve Kovach August 13, 2015 at 11:20AM

samsung ceo jk shin announces samsung pay

Samsung announced Thursday that its mobile payments service called Samsung Pay will launch in the US and South Korea on September 28.

The service, which was originally announced in March, was supposed to launch in the summer, but apparently ran into delays. Now it will launch on Samsung's two newest phones, the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+.

But despite getting a final date for Samsung Pay's launch, Samsung still wasn't able to say which credit cards, banks, and other financial institutions will be compatible with the service.

In March, only Visa and MasterCard said they were committed to Samsung Pay, but they were not mentioned at Samsung's big launch event on Thursday.

According to a source familiar with Samsung's plans, the company is still trying to wrangle major credit card companies in time for the September 28 launch. However, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express are expected to be ready to go at launch along with a few other major banks.

Samsung's official statement is that it's still working with partners before Samsung Pay launches. This makes Samsung Pay a tough sell if users don't know if their credit cards will be compatible.

Apple Pay — which supports most major credit cards and many, if not most, of the banks in the US today — wasn't as robust when it launched in October of last year. Apple Pay continues to add new partners all the time. However, Apple Pay was able to say it had most major credit cards and major banks ready to go when it first announced Apple Pay.

Samsung is remaining quiet for now until the deals are finalized.

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There's still a big problem with Samsung Pay from Business Insider: Steve Kovach

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