South Korean giant Samsung has launched Samsung Pay in Australia on June 15, 2016. This means that in future when people in Australia will leave the house they will not have to carry anything other than their Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Samsung for the new service has joined hands with American Express and Citibank to deliver contactless mobile payment platform. So the Australians who have an Amex or Citibank issued card will be able to use their Samsung Galaxy smartphone to tap and pay at contactless terminals. Australia has become the fifth market to have Samsung Pay after the US, Korea, China and Spain.
The users can make use of Samsung Pay on any Galaxy smartphone supporting Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above. It will work with a simple swipe to pay interface that Samsung claims it is easy as using a card. On the other hand contactless payments are not new in Australia as contactless chip cards and NFC enabled payment terminals already exist in the country.
Apple Pay was launched along with American Express in October 2015. Even a number of Australia Banks offer their own contactless mobile payments. Despite the competition, Samsung is keen on getting in to the market as it has promised the merchants and financial institutions of not taking any interchange fees like Apple Pay.
Photo Credits: smh
