Samsung continues its drive of expanding its payment service, not just in terms of rolling out the service in new markets, but by also ensuring a deeper penetration in already existing markets. Samsung in partnership with the State Bank of India (SBI) has announced the roll out of Samsung Pay services for SBI debit card holders.
This is, no doubt, a move aimed at expanding the benefits of digital payment to more Samsung smartphone users in India. To promote the adoption of the service by SBI debit cardholders, Samsung has also announced an inaugural offer were costumers will get rewarded with a maximum cashback of Rs. 500. All SBI debit card consumers will get Rs. 100 cashback on a minimum purchase of Rs. 500 using Samsung Pay and the offer is valid until August 31.
The State Bank of India is a state-owned multinational, public sector banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Mumbai. The bank is reputed to have a customer base of 130 million who use their debit card. This large customer base coupled with Samsung’s control of 25% of the smartphone market in India is a sure recipe for better things to come for Samsung Pay. An SBI spokesperson disclosed during the roll out of the service that the company expects 10 – 20 times increase in digital payments through the support of Samsung Pay. For now, only its high-end debit cards will be supported for Samsung Pay as its Maestro cards will only get supported for the payment service in December 2018 after all current Maestro cards have been replaced with more secured ones.
Samsung Pay made its debut in India in March this year and is already supported by several banks as well as UPI, and Paytm. Samsung Pay supports both NFC and MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) that allows a user to send a magnetic signal from smartphone to the payment terminal’s card reader. For now, the service is only available on the 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 the newly launched Galaxy J7 Pro. It is also supported in different markets on the Samsung Gear S2 and Gear S3 smartwatches.
Related News
