What is Samsung Pay and how does it work?

It’s a payment method available on select Samsung devices which allows you to store your card details on your phone or smartwatch, so you don’t need to use your physical card or enter your details every time you go to pay for something.

Essentially, it’s like an online wallet and was officially launched in the UK in May 2017.

When you’re ready to pay, you simply:

• Swipe up on your Samsung phone’s screen or use your fingerprint (if you have it set) to wake the device up
• Choose your preferred card and confirm using either your fingerprint or your unique passcode
• Hold the phone next to the card reader
• Your phone will connect to the card machine within seconds and make payment.

It’s as easy as that!

Samsung Pay works using two types of technology:

Near Field Communication Technology

Also called NFC, this tech is similar to the one used for (Radio Frequency Identification or RFID technology). NFC uses radio waves to send information between devices. So, when you have your phone next to the card machine, it allows the two to talk to each other to process the payment.

It only works within a few centimetres of each other, so it won’t connect to any other devices nearby, so you can’t accidentally make a payment or pay for someone else’s stuff!

Magnetic Strip Technology (MST)

Unlike Apple Pay and Android Pay, Samsung Pay also has MST support. Also known as Magnetic Strip Technology or Magnetic Secure Transmission, this is used as an alternative to NFC payments when they’re not available.

It works using a signal, like the one used when a credit card or debit card is swiped through a card machine, enabling the device and the machine to speak to each other to process the payment.

With MST, it means that even if your card machine doesn’t feature NFC, you’ll still be able to process contactless payments for Samsung Pay. All of our card machines feature NFC as standard.

What security does it use?

Samsung Pay uses something called Knox technology. This is its own security which protect your details when you’re making a payment.

Any card information that you enter into Samsung Pay will be tokenised, so the details are changed into a series of randomly-generated numbers and letters for safe storage in a secure data vault.

Because the information has been tokenised, it becomes something that only the processing bank can read and use for payment. It can’t be changed back into the original card details, so if anyone were to hack or access the token, they wouldn’t be able to use it or link it back to the cardholder.

To make a payment, the Samsung device will require user authentication, either using your fingerprint, a PIN number, or an iris scan (yes, eye scanning is here!).

Plus, if you ever lose your phone, you can remotely lock or erase your Samsung Pay account with Find my Mobile.

How to start accepting Samsung Pay?

If you’re interested in taking payments with Samsung Pay, we can help.

There’s no extra set-up or cost with Payzone, as all of our card payment machines come already enabled to take payments through Samsung Pay, Android Pay, Apple Pay and contactless.

That means you’ll be able to offer your customers multiple ways to pay through your card machine, whether that’s from your counter, around the shop floor or whilst out and about.

At Payzone, we have no set-up fees when you join, plus we offer our customers one of the shortest contracts available on the current market – a 12 month contract.