We all know what’s happening right now. Just yesterday, Apple announced that Apple Pay will finally be available for users in Singapore. And less than 24 hours later, Samsung makes a similar announcement. Samsung users, it’s time to rejoice!
Samsung Pay will be made available for Singaporeans sometime between this month and the end of June, making it the first country in our region (and the fourth in the world) to enjoy Samsung’s secure and easy-to-use mobile payment service. While it sounds like it’s pretty much the same thing, what can Samsung users expect with this new service? Well, for starters, you can expect more than just American Express on board. MasterCard and Visa credit/debit cards will also be supported when Samsung Pay officially launches in Singapore, with major banks like DBS/POSB, OCBC and Standard Chartered Banks to follow after.
Samsung hopes to expand its list of retail and merchant partners so that the service will be available to Samsung consumer “almost anywhere”. This includes supermarkets, convenience stores, departmental stores, healthcare and beauty outlets, food and beverage outlets, fashion and lifestyle stores and electronics and furnishing stores.
Another thing that Samsung Pay seems to have covered are its security features – fingerprint authentication (the most basic of all security features), tokenisation and Samsung KNOX. Whenever you make a transaction, Samsung Pay will generate an encrypted single-use digital token in place of your personal payment information (so all your information is kept confidential) to the payment outlet, which can only be authorised with your fingerprint. Samsung’s industry-leading KNOX security platform looks out for malicious software and monitors activityes on your device for added security and protection.
Samsung Pay will be available on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 4G+, Galaxy S6 edge+ 4G+, Galaxy S7 4G+ and S7 edge 4G+ upon its launch in Singapore.
