The tech giant Samsung has officially launched Samsung Pay in the United States. Samsung Pay differentiates itself as being usable in more places than Android Pay and Apple Pay.
Apple Pay and Android Pay have their own advantages; however, Samsung Pay is the best choice.
Samsung's mobile payment system utilizes two technologies to enable users to pay for items, Magnetic secure transfer and near-field communication, Ars Technica reported.
Near-field communication (NFC) utilizes a chip in a user's mobile phone that allows it to communicate with NFC-enabled payment terminals.
Magnetic secure transfer (MST) is the same technology that normal credit card readers use. Hence, users can use Samsung Pay at any credit card swipe terminal in the United States.
However, it is important to note that Samsung Pay only works with newest devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy S6 Edge. At present, Samsung Pay works with T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T, TechCrunch reported.
Furthermore, Citi, Bank of America and US Bank are the banks that support Samsung Pay. Samsung Pay is accepted at any shop that has a credit card swipe machine because it utilizes NFC as well as MST technologies.
On the other hand, Apple Pay only utilizes NFC technology. This means that Apple Pay can only be used at retailers with NFC-enabled payment terminals. Users can use Apple Pay to pay for products inside many apps, such as Starbucks, Best Buy and Uber. It means that users can use their fingerprint to make payments.
At present, Apple Pay is available on the Apple Watch, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6. Apple Pay works with more than 500 banks in the U.S. T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon support Apple Pay.
Android Pay also can only be used at retailers with NFC-equipped payment terminals. It works with any Android-powered mobile phone that runs Android KitKat 4.4 operating syatem or that has a built-in NFC chip. It means that many Android phones are compatible with Android Pay.
Android Pay can be downloaded on Sprint smartphones and comes pre-loaded on smartphones from Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T. Android Pay works with 13 banks.
However, users can use Samsung Pay at regular credit card readers as well as NFC-enabled payment terminals. This makes Samsung Pay far more useful than Android Pay and Apple Pay.
In the first month after its launch in South Korea, Samsung Pay had been used to make $30 million worth of purchases.