Samsung has launched its Samsung Pay Card in South Korea in partnership with Samsung Card and Mastercard. This comes right after Samsung Money was introduced in the US market.
Unlike the US, this is a credit card that aims to provide more benefits to Samsung Pay users. The card is offered exclusively via the Samsung Pay app and it also comes with a physical card as well. This would allow users to make payments at locations where contactless payments are not supported.
Cardholders can manage their card, view transactions, discounts and their bill from the Samsung Card app which is also accessible via Samsung Pay. For online transactions, you can view the card number and details from the app and there’s also the option to block overseas payments when required.
Samsung Pay Card users can enjoy discounts when making payments via Samsung Pay. According to the official announcement, users can enjoy 1% discount at offline stores and 1.5% discount for online transactions. From now until 31st December, there are South Korean merchants that offer extra 0.5% discount and users can get up to 3% discount at certain Samsung Pay coupon shops. On top of that, users are also eligible to get 2% discount for postpaid transportation payments.
For overseas transactions, Samsung Pay card offers a 5% discount with a maximum cap of KRW 100,000 (about RM349) per month. According to the South Korea tech giant, Samsung Pay currently has 19 million users and have accumulated 80 trillion payments since it started in Korea in August 2015.
For our region, the closest product offering to this is the GrabPay card. It’s a virtual Mastercard that’s linked to GrabPay eWallet and it works with Samsung Pay. To expand its usage, you’ll also receive a physical card which can be used at any Mastercard merchant. Instead of the Samsung Pay app, users will need to use the Grab app to view card transactions and manage their card.
The GrabPay card is already available in Singapore and the Philippines. However, for Malaysia, all we got at the moment is a co-branded Grab x Maybank credit card.
