Samsung Pay is now officially available in Malaysia. The electronic wallet allows users to use their smartphones to pay for goods in stores. That said, the best part of Samsung Pay lies in its use of NFC technology that allows it to be used in stores that normally don’t support electronic payments.
According to Samsung, devices that support Samsung Pay have a proprietary MST technology that allows them to mimic the magnetic strip of a credit card. This allows them to be used without any additional equipment from stores; and should make the service much more convenient both both customers and businesses.
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At the moment, Samsung Pay supports CIMB Mastercard; Citibank Mastercard and Visa; Maybank Visa; and Standard Chartered Mastercard and Visa credit cards. Maybank Visa backed debit cards and prepaid cards are also supported. Samsung also says that support for Hong Leong Bank will be added soon, although there is no time frame given.
Loyalty card such as B Infinite, Bonuslink, and Sunway Pals are also supported through the app.
Samsung Pay is currently only available on a small number of devices: the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy A5 (2017 and 2016), and the Galaxy A7 (2017 and 2016).
A beta test programme for Samsung Pay and Maybank has been running in Malaysia since December 2016; although it seems that the company has missed its original release target of Q4 2016. Still it’s better late than never. Especially when it takes a long time for merchants to catch up with new payment methods like these.
