Samsung Pay to be released in the UK by the end of this year

Samsung Pay saw it’s first birthday on August 20th 2016 with more than 100 million unique transactions across seven different countries including South Korea, United States, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico and Brazil. And finally, it’s expected to be released in the UK by the end of this year.

How does Samsung Pay work?

Samsung Pay combines NFC and a new MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technology to allow you to make payments using your Samsung Galaxy smartphone. The pay system stores a digital copy of your credit or debit card on your phone in the form of a digital token – rather than the actual card details. Every payment you make creates a unique transaction token, so that your card cannot be cloned or stolen.

How do I use Samsung Pay?

Firstly you’ll need to download the free app from the Google Play store and add your credit or debit cards. From the home screen or lock screen, you swipe up from the bottom, running your finger over the fingerprint reader. From there you can choose which card you want to pay with, before tapping your card to the reader and completing the transaction.

What are the compatible handsets and where can I use it?

Samsung Pay is available for use on the Galaxy Note 7, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy Active, Galaxy A5, Galaxy A7 and Galaxy A9 handsets.

As Samsung Pay uses both NFC and MST technology, it should theoretically work in any shop with a contactless reader and be compatible whether the checkout terminal supports NFC or the traditional magstripe found on debit and credit cards. Although it’s yet to be announced which banks will be supported, it’s likely Samsung will court the same high street banks as Apple and Android Pay which include the Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds, M&S, MBNA and Nationwide.