Samsung Pay, which is Samsung’s version of Android Pay, was launched in India back in March this year. The service already supports credit/debit cards of quite a few banks in India, however, it now supports the higher variants of SBI’s Debit Cards as well.
Now that Samsung Pay supports SBI’s Debit Cards, those SBI customers who have a compatible Samsung smartphone can use this tap-and-pay technology to make payments at PoS terminals instead of swiping their debit cards.
Unlike Android Pay, which relies on NFC and requires compatible terminals, Samsung Pay works on MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technology and mimics card swipes at the card-swipe terminals, which means that you will be able to make payments at PoS terminals using your smartphone without the need of a physical debit/credit card.
As part of the tie-up between Samsung and SBI, Samsung Pay customers who have eligible SBI Debit Cards will get a flat cashback of ₹100 on a minimum transaction amount of ₹500. This offer is valid till August 31, and, the maximum cashback available per card is ₹500.
Having said that, the Samsung smartphones that currently support Samsung Pay in India are Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A7 (2017), Galaxy A9 Pro and Galaxy J7 Pro. Samsung also introduced Samsung Pay Mini in India with the Galaxy J7 Max. The Samsung Pay Mini, however, is a stripped down version of Samsung Pay and only supports digital wallet apps like Mobikwik and Paytm while letting you store and use credit/debit card information. Of course, like Samsung Pay, the Samsung Pay Mini also comes with UPI payments integration.
Speaking of the banks which have support for Samsung Pay in India are American Express, Axis Bank, Citibank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank.
“Bank aims to be the Banker to Digital India and has been at the fore-front of all digital initiatives in the banking space. We are committed towards increasing the share of digital initiatives in products, services and transactions, supported by technologically advanced backend operations. Tie-up with Samsung Pay is one such initiative which will give our customers an additional reason to go digital.” said Mr. Rajnish Kumar, MD, National Banking Group, SBI.
Samsung Pay is currently only supported on Samsung smartphones due to the requirement of special hardware, however, there were reports recently stating this South Korean giant is planning to bring its payment service to non-Samsung smartphones as well in order to further extend its reach in the market.
By the way, are you a Samsung Pay user?
