Samsung Pay Finally Supports Membership, Loyalty Cards In US

These days, and especially in the US, purchasing items is no longer just a simple case of handing over the exact amount in exchange for a product. A lot of times, discounts or deals are applied via membership perks or loyalty incentives. To put it in perspective, Samsung says that an average American household juggles around 30 loyalty cards, which all add up to bulking your wallet. As part of its mission to digitize money, Samsung Pay is finally getting support for those loyalty cards to make shopping in the US even more convenient.

Somewhat in contrast to Android Pay, Samsung has been rather aggressive in pushing Samsung Pay to everyone's consciousness. Even though it's still pretty much limited geographically, Samsung Pay is trying to hit all the right marks in those markets, especially in the US where it faces tough competition from Apple Pay. While it does have the advantage of technology, supporting both NFC and MST terminals, Samsung still has some catching up to do as far as spreading its brand goes, at least vis-a-vis Apple.

This latest addition could help narrow the gap between it and Apple's payment system. Apple Pay has had support for loyalty cards for some time now, so Samsung is, in a way, catching up. Better late than never, right?

Samsung makes using this new feature sound so simple. Users simply upload their membership data to Samsung Pay and, when it comes for checkout, merchants simply scan the barcode displayed on the smartphone's screen. Samsung doesn't go into the specifics but mentions that even insurance and ID cards are supported.

The promise of extra thin, or even no, wallets is definitely a strong one, but it will take a few more years before that can even become common place. Especially considering how new this particular feature is, shoppers are more likely to still bring their 30 or so membership and ID cards than risk missing out on that juicy discount just because of technical difficulties.

SOURCE: Samsung