Further expanding its already strong reach in the UK, Samsung Pay is now available to John Lewis and Waitrose Partnership Card customers in the UK, Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday. The announcement comes within a month after Samsung Pay joined hands with American Express in the UK.
In addition to the Partnership Card and American Express, Samsung Pay also supports MasterCard and Visa cards issued by the Co-operative Bank, First Direct, HSBC, M&S Bank, MBNA, Nationwide, and Santander.
Why Samsung Pay?
Simple, secure and almost anywhere, Samsung Pay enables users to make faster and smarter purchases via number of compatible Samsung devices. It is secured with Samsung Knox security platform, providing real-time kernel protection. Also transactions are made using a random token instead of the card number, which makes sure that card information aren’t shared at the purchase terminal.
Not just Master and Visa cards, but you can also load loyalty and store cards into the app. And if you fear for your card’s safety in case the device gets lost, then you’d be pleased to know that card information is safely encrypted within a separate and secure data vault, thanks to Samsung Knox. So security is literally the last thing one should be worried about with Samsung Pay.
Samsung has also worked with Transport for London (TfL) on exclusive functionality for Samsung Pay that allows users to set a payment card up as a ‘transport card’ to use on all TfL services and most National Rail services in London, allowing them to simply tap their phone against the card reader, eliminating the need to wake their phone or verify with a fingerprint or passcode.
Compatible Devices
As of now, Samsung Pay is available in 20 countries and is compatible with a number of Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 +, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S6 Edge+. Others include the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge (NFC only), Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy A7 (2017), A5 (2017), A3 (2017), Galaxy A7 (2016), A5 (2016), Galaxy J7 (2017) and Galaxy J5 (2017).
Samsung Pay is also available on the Tizen based smart watches Samsung Gear S2 and Gear S3 Classic and Frontier. Please note that Gear S2 currently does not support Samsung Pay in the UK
