
Samsung have launched their contactless pay system in Spain due to the country's high level of smartphone and credit card use.
Samsung Pay has launched into the European market ahead of rivals Apple Pay and Android Pay with Spain being the first country to receive the service.
Apple Pay is also set to launch in Spain later this year while Android Pay has plans to enter the European market soon. The reason for Spain being the first target is due to the country’s high smartphone and credit card usage with 64 percent of the population using cards to pay for purchases.
Samsung Pay is currently only available in the U.S., South Korea and China with the expansion into Europe set to open up a more convenient way for people to pay worldwide. The payment system currently has 5 million users in the U.S. with numbers rising in the Asian countries. According to a TechCrunch report, Samsung Pay can be used with NFC terminals as well as traditional magnetic terminals both currently widely supported by retail stores. Both Apple and Android Pay are restricted to only NFC terminals.
At the moment Samsung Pay is available on the company’s flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and S6 series with an introduction to the Galaxy A5 within the next few weeks. In Spain the payment system has teamed up with major banks CaixaBank and imaginBank and will be collaborating with Abanca and Banco Sabadell in the near future. Samsung are confident it will be providing an excellent service to its customers.
“Samsung operates an open model of partnership and collaboration to deliver the best possible customer experience,” said Victor Kim, the global director for Samsung Pay. “We’re confident that we’re providing Spanish customers with the mobile payments service that they’re looking for.”
As reported by TechCrunch, Samsung has not mentioned whether the system will support magnetic terminals in Spain as it does in other countries but CaixaBank claims contactless pay is already popular in the country and should not pose much of a problem.
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