Where you can use Samsung Pay in South Africa
Samsung Pay has officially launched in South Africa, making mobile payments easier than ever before.
The payment app is compatible with selected Samsung smartphones and allows South Africans to make payments at a variety of stores without the need to have their wallet and physical bank card with them.
Once installed, Samsung Pay integrates seamlessly with your smartphone’s operating system and can be accessed by simply swiping up from the bottom of your device.
Payments are secured with a PIN and biometric security, allowing you to authenticate your mobile payments using the fingerprint recognition and iris scanner features of your device, or by entering a code.
The application is currently compatible with Absa and Standard Bank cards, and support for additional banks will be added in the future.
Pay anywhere
Using Samsung Pay to purchase a product is effortless compared to traditional card payments, and the app is compatible with almost every POS terminal you will encounter.
This means that you can comfortably head out on the town without your wallet, confident that your banking data is secured within Samsung Pay by biometric or PIN authentication.
Paying with your Samsung smartphone is as simple as opening the application, authenticating as the user, and holding your device against the POS terminal.
Almost instantly, your app will reflect that the payment has been completed and you can continue about your day without the hassle of getting out your wallet or constantly entering your bank PIN.
Creating Samsung Pay to work with a large range of POS systems involved the implementation of unique technology into Samsung’s flagship devices, and it is this hardware that allows the app to function so well.
High-end devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 series feature this technology built in to their design, and upcoming flagship devices will continue to include these unique hardware features.
How it works
Samsung Pay uses Near-Field Communication (NFC) and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology to facilitate payments on compatible POS terminals.
NFC is the same technology used by bank cards to make contactless payments, and only works with payment terminals which support NFC or “tap-and-go” payments.
Not all POS terminals support this technology, however, and this is where Samsung Pay comes into its own as a powerful mobile payments platform.
Samsung Pay can also broadcast an MST signal.
The MST signal mimics the magnetic stripe on a physical card and can be used to interface with older card machines that only support manual card swipes.
This useful technology is exclusive to supported Samsung devices and makes Samsung Pay one of the easiest and most widely-supported ways to pay for purchases in South Africa.
Thanks to this payment terminal support, Samsung Pay can be used to pay for everything from petrol and coffee to movie tickets and dinner at a restaurant.
