Everybody’s got their own payment system these days. Google have Android Pay, Apple have Apple Pay, and of course Samsung have Samsung Pay. Both Google and Apple’s offerings are now available in the UK (hurrah!), but Samsung’s service is still AWOL (boo). That may soon be changing soon however, as Samsung Pay officially launched in Spain today.
Spain is the fifth region to get Samsung Pay, following the initial launch in the United States and South Korea last year, and this year’s launches in China and Singapore (although the latter was just a trial run).
Interestingly, Samsung Pay is the first mobile payments service to arrive in Spain, ahead of both Apple and Google. That gives Samsung a massive first-movers advantage, and they seem to be doing well already with partnerships with a good number of domestic and international brands in Spain. Samsung’s press release has a full list of partners if you’d like to check it out. Pay’s unique ability to use non-smart magnetic stripe payment systems should also help uptake on the Iberian Peninsula.
Customers with two of Spain’s largest banks, CaixaBank and imaginBank, will be able to get started right away, while Abanca and Banco Sabadell customers will have the opportunity ‘soon’. In terms of devices, you’ll need a Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, S7, S7 Edge or Galaxy A5 2016; all future Samsung flagship phones including the Note 7 will also support the NFC payments standard.
Samsung has promised that four more countries will get Pay soon: Australia, Brazil, Canada and the UK (that’s us!). So far we have no idea when this will happen, but a successful Spanish launch has got to be a good sign.
Are you looking forward to the launch of Samsung Pay? Let us know in the comments below, or write to us on Twitter @mobilefun!