Samsung Pay officially launches in India

Earlier this month, the Samsung Pay early access program was launched in India, and today, the mobile payment platform has officially launched in the country. For those unaware, Samsung Pay is a Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) and NFC based service, that allows users to make wireless or contactless payments at PoS terminals.

It works with most of the credit and debit cards and also lets you use digital wallets like PayTm (by scanning QR codes), as well as the government’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to make payments.

Currently, the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A7 (2017) Galaxy A5 (2016) and Galaxy A7 (2016) supports Samsung Pay. It will come soon to Gear S3 smartwatch as well. 

To make a payment, the user should open the Samsung Pay app, select the card, and authenticate the purchase using a pin or fingerprint scanner, and then place the phone near the machines at a PoS terminal.

Samsung says its mobile payment platform is extremely secure and details of the card number or others are not stored on the phone.

The company also announced several exclusive launch offers for the Samsung Pay users. Mastercard users will get 20 percent instant discount at Pizza Hut, 15 percent discount on Barista and discounts on select combos at Cafe Coffee day. There's also up to Rs. 1,000 cash back on Axis Bank cards; five percent cash back (debit cards) and 5X reward points (credit card) on HDFC cards, up to 50 percent cash back on ICIC bank cards, Rs. 100 cash back on SBI cards, 20 percent cash back on Standard Chartered and Rs. 200 and a free movie ticket with PayTm.