Samsung Pay expanding to UK, Spain, Australia, and more

Samsung Pay — the one mobile payment service that works with magnetic stripe card terminals — has thus far been available exclusively to customers in the US and South Korea. However, Samsung has just announced its plans to expand the service's availability to other markets later year.

Although the company didn't specify exactly when we should expect Samsung Pay's expansion to take place, it at least revealed the markets which are going to get it. Those are the UK, Spain, Australia, China, Singapore and Brazil. We presume that Samsung will be gradually introducing Pay across these countries, so expect further details to be disclosed in the months to follow. Additionally, the company has promised that Gear S2 smartwatch owners will be able to handle Samsung Pay transactions through their wearables at some point later in 2016.

Unlike Apple Pay and Android Pay, Samsung Pay (did all of them really had to call their services "Pay"?) works with not only NFC-enabled terminals, but also ones that rely solely on the aging magnetic stripe technology. Samsung is able to do so with Pay, thanks to a technology called MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission), which it acquired along with the company that invented it – LoopPay, back in February last year. An interesting case got some attention this October: LoopPay's office network got penetrated by a hacker group, believed to be affiliated with the Chinese government, but Samsung was quick to report that the breach had nothing to do with the Samsung Pay network, and that the security issue that allowed this to happen had been taken care of.

source: Samsung

11 Comments

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posted on 05 Jan 2016, 17:41

1. wando77 (Posts: 1076; Member since: 23 Aug 2012)

So the rumours of the uk getting it in early 2016 are false then. Really annoyed with samsung about this as samsung pay was one of the big draws for me getting an s6 edge+

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 17:52 1

2. Ray.S (Posts: 383; Member since: 19 Jul 2011)

UK may still get it in early 2016. We're still veeery early in 2016. :)

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 18:08 2

3. wando77 (Posts: 1076; Member since: 23 Aug 2012)

Hope it won't be long. Just didn't sound promising the way you said later in the year.

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 22:58

9. TechieXP1969 (Posts: 14041; Member since: 25 Sep 2013)

By definition, later can be anytime after today

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 19:03

4. cncrim (Posts: 896; Member since: 15 Aug 2011)

Samsung need to figure out how to get that samsung pay on root phone...... otherwise Android Pay fill the gap.

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 19:09

5. vijay.alapati (Posts: 181; Member since: 08 Jan 2015)

I heard android pay will be also not working on rooted devices.

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 20:10

6. Nicko97 (Posts: 49; Member since: 25 May 2015)

Neither does Samsung pay rooting your s6 disables Samsung pay entirely due to breaking Knox which Samsung pay relies on for security

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 22:57

8. TechieXP1969 (Posts: 14041; Member since: 25 Sep 2013)

Which is a good thing.
Apple.Pay working on a jailbroken device makes it less sexure.

posted on 06 Jan 2016, 00:32

10. cncrim (Posts: 896; Member since: 15 Aug 2011)

Android Pay do work with rooted device. The bad is Samsung will stop working forever once phone is rooted, even going back stock rom will not able the Samsung Pay. To me, it is Samsung lost because for those change their mind reverse to stock and still cant use Samsung Pay.

posted on 06 Jan 2016, 10:47

11. TechieXP1969 (Posts: 14041; Member since: 25 Sep 2013)

Who uses Android Pay?
What Samsung did is better because if you break the functionality by rooting, your device if insecure. The thing is, if you need Samsung Pay dont root it. Or you have the option to buy the International model which doesnt have Samsung pay. You can root it all you want.

posted on 05 Jan 2016, 22:56 1

7. TechieXP1969 (Posts: 14041; Member since: 25 Sep 2013)

Agaom, PA can't write a nice article about Samsung without ending it with some bull.

What was the point of bring up that LoopPay got hacked when it had no effect on Samsung Pay?

I mean really?

You just can't help it, can you PA. You guys are such dogs.

As much negative things that have been happening to Apple you almost don't mention any. Yet this issue didn't even directly happen to Samsung and you mentioned it.

How about me toning how Samsung Pay is getting more usage over Apple Pay because it doesn't have an acceleration ce issue..

It got a good laugh 2 days ago at Costco. I always use my Samsung Pay at Costco because I always buy a month worth of supplies for my office and that is a ring up of at least $709. So I always use my AMEX. when I got ready to pay this time, I pulled out my phone and put it next to the terminal. The girl was like, it only works with Apple Pay. I was like really are you sure. As soon as she said yes it went through, just slower than usual. She was oh it worked. I was yeah it always does and look I didn't have to use NFC. She was like I watched people domitnwith iPhone and they have to go through several steps. I said well iPhone only use NFC and you have to have it turned on all the time. I told her I can pay that way too if need be.

So far I only had to use NFC once and I used Android Pay for that because my Chase card didn't work with Samsung Pay at first, but they do now.

Now all I carry is my ID and my phone and I keep my AMEX with me forever just in case.

Samsung Pay is awesome. Once they get more banks, Apple Pay is going to suffer. The only thing I see is because Samsung isn't a US company they just don't get the support Apple does even though they are using the better technology over both Apple and Google.