Falling in line with speculations, Samsung Pay is expected to make its official India debut in the coming weeks. This development has been confirmed as the Korean giant has started accepting registrations for early access to its mobile payment service in the country. It is currently available on a handful of Galaxy smartphones, with support for only Visa and Mastercard credit/debit cards.
At mentioned on the registration website, Samsung Pay is currently compatible with the following devices – Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2016). The mobile devices compatible with Samsung Pay have already got the app automatically installed on their devices through a recent software update.
In addition, Samsung is currently accepting requests for credit and debit cards issued by a handful of Indian banks. These include Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards, and Standard Chartered Bank. The users registering for this program will also have to keep in mind that the service is only available for Visa and Mastercard.
The Korean giant has also partnered with American Express and Citibank India but support for their cards hasn’t been added for early access users. They are currently being termed as “forthcoming issuers” and will become live on Samsung Pay in subsequent weeks. It has not been specifically mentioned when cards issued by them will be added to the app, maybe they’ll exist with the official launch.
Thus, if you own one of the aforementioned Galaxy devices and credit/debit cards then you can register to try out Samsung Pay before its official release. You can visit this link to register for the Early Access Program, but as has been pointed out by many, the application cannot be used to complete payments at the moment. The email received after signing up reads that early access will become available shortly and instructs you to update your device to get the Samsung Pay app.
As for Samsung Pay, it is a digital payment platform exclusive to NFC-enabled Galaxy smartphones. It allows you to use your credit, debit, gift, and reward cards to complete payments at PoS terminals. Instead of swiping cards and entering PIN numbers, Samsung Pay simplifies the process through its secure and contactless payments solution. It also allows you to complete transactions using the fingerprint sensor or traditional transaction codes for authentication.
Samsung Pay is currently available across U.S and Korea, but the company is currently planning to expand its reach as well as feature set. It is making headway into the U.K and Asia and has already been launched in Singapore, and an Indian launch is expected by mid-2017.
