Right on schedule, Samsung Pay has officially launched in the US.
Samsung Pay is now available on the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, and Galaxy Note 5. As of this writing, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular are offering support for Samsung Pay in the US. What about Verizon, you ask? It says that it’s still evaluating Samsung Pay.
As for the cards that Samsung Pay supports, the service initially works with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. The supported banks include Bank of America, Citi, and US Bank.
One other detail that’s worth mentioning is that Samsung is running a promotion that’ll give you a free accessory for activating Samsung Pay on your compatible device. If you activate Samsung Pay on your GS6 edge+ or Note 5 between September 28 and October 11 at 11:59 pm ET, you can get either a free regular wireless charging pad or wallet flip cover. To enroll, you’ll need to activate Samsung Pay with a qualifying card, then click More > Announcements > Samsung Pay Activation Offer in the Samsung Pay app.
Samsung Pay is the third mobile payment service to launch in the US in recent memory, along with Apple Pay and Android Pay. What’s notable about Samsung Pay is that because it has Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology that enables it to work with regular ol’ credit card terminals that don’t support NFC. So while Android Pay may support more devices than Samsung Pay, Samsung’s service works with a larger number of terminals.
Have you tried Samsung Pay yet? If so, how has it worked for you?