Mobile contactless payments are becoming an increasingly important and common feature nowadays, and following Apple‘s and Google‘s push with their respective systems, Samsung too has started to offer its service in Europe, starting with Spain…
While Apple pioneered NFC-based transactions with Apple Pay back in 2014 — and opened to the European market last year — it took Android users a little more to enjoy the feature.
Android Pay became available last September for US customers — around the time people in the UK got their hands on Apple Pay — but it’s been only recently that Britons saw Google’s system go live.
I started using it here in London on my Galaxy S7 edge, which despite being equipped with Samsung’s own service, unlike people in the US (South Korea and China) does not allow me to use it — yet.
As of today, in fact, Samsung has started the European rollout of its Pay system, beginning with Spain.
“The opportunity for Samsung Pay in Spain is significant, due to the high smartphone penetration rate and the digitalisation of the banking sector,” said Celestino García, Corporate Vice President of Samsung Spain.
“Moreover, according to recent research commissioned by Samsung, nearly six in 10 Spaniards are interested in incorporating a secure, simple and widely accepted payments service like Samsung Pay into their lives.”
NFC-enabled, Samsung Pay-ready devices include the Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge, S6, S6 edge, and S6 edge+, with specific availability varying by local operator. The Galaxy A5 2016 will also support Samsung Pay in the coming weeks.
As far as banks go, CaixaBank and imaginBank are the first ones to have opened their network to Samsung, with Abanca and Banco Sabadell to follow “soon.”
Samsung Pay will be compatible with “all stores that already have contactless terminals,” and the company is working closely with leading businesses from retail, food, service stations, and parking services sectors to “create value-added services for their customers”.
Among the renowned brands are Cepsa, Cervecería La Sureña, Domino’s Pizza, El Corte Inglés, Fridays, Ginos, Grupo DIA, MediaMarkt, Mercadona, Phone House, Repsol, Rodilla, Saba, Starbucks, The Good Burger, The Wok, VIPS, VIPSmart, 100 Montaditos, with more to “follow in due course.”
No dates or mentions of other EU countries have been given, but we would expect to hear more in the coming weeks and months.
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