Samsung Wallet - with its built-in contactless payments, vouchers and ID - is similar to Apple Pay and Google Pay. It is a platform for Samsung devices - smartphones and wearables - that allows you to pay for goods and services by tapping your Samsung device near a contactless payment terminal or authorising an online payment, rather than using cash or credit cards. It also gives you a handy place to keep store cards, digital vouchers, travel tickets and ID.

Here's everything you need to know, including what banks are supported and how it works.

What happened to Samsung Pay?

The short answer is: nothing. Samsung Pay is Samsung's contactless payment system and - to an extent - it still exists within Samsung Wallet. It's just one of its features. You'll notice, however, that if you update your Samsung Pay app now it'll be replaced by Samsung Wallet: delivering more features than just a simple payment system. Samsung essentially combined Samsung Pay with Samsung Pass, and made it one app.

What do I need for Samsung Wallet?

The Samsung Wallet platform is baked into Samsung Galaxy devices, which includes the company's smartphones and wearables. You can find the full list of compatible devices below.

To use Samsung Wallet/Samsung Pay, you'll need to download and install the Samsung Wallet (Samsung Pay) app on your compatible phone, register compatible cards and accounts and the platform will draw directly from these chosen sources when making a payment.

What devices are compatible with Samsung Wallet?

Below is a list of some Samsung smartphones that support Samsung Wallet. All Samsung phones running Android 9 or later and featuring an NFC chip will be able to use Samsung's payment protocol.

  • Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23 Ultra
  • Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22 Ultra
  • Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra
  • Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra
  • Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+
  • Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+
  • Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+
  • Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
  • Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+
  • Galaxy Note 9
  • Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5
  • Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4
  • Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3
  • Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy Z Flip 5G
  • Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Z Flip
  • Galaxy A53, A52, A51 and A50
  • Galaxy A72 and Galaxy A71

This is the current list of Samsung wearables that support Samsung Wallet/Samsung Pay:

  • Gear S2
  • Gear S3
  • Gear Sport
  • Galaxy Watch
  • Galaxy Watch Active
  • Galaxy Watch Active 2 40mm and 44mm
  • Galaxy Watch 3 42mm and 45mm
  • Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
  • Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
  • Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic
Galaxy Watch 3 hardware photo 3

How does Samsung Pay work?

When using a phone: by swiping up from the bottom of the display, the Samsung Wallet app will launch and your default card will appear along with a message to authenticate a payment with your PIN, fingerprint, or iris scanner on compatible devices. You can also launch Samsung Wallet by opening the app.

If a different card is needed, a simple left or right swipe will bring up others stored in your phone. The last card you used will automatically appear as the default card the next time you open the app but you can change this in settings.

Once the payment has been biometrically authorised, the phone tells you to tap it onto the contactless payment reader and bingo, a payment is made via NFC (near field communication).

When using a smartwatch: From any compatible Samsung Galaxy smartwatch screen, press and hold the Back key. The last used card will be shown and the smartwatch is then ready to make a payment. Tap the "Pay" button on-screen to Pay and hold your wrist to the contactless payment reader.

Samsung Pay: MST payments are no more

When it first launched, Samsung Pay offered more than just NFC in some regions - such as the US - by also offering a mobile wallet technology called MST (Magnetic Strip Technology), which it acquired when it bought LoopPay.

MST allows a contactless payment to be made with terminals that do not feature NFC readers (mostly outside the UK), which opens up a lot more retailers to the payment tech.

It sends the payment information to conventional terminals in stores that have the old-fashioned magnetic strip instead.

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Samsung killed this functionality off in 2021, however, and stopped including the hardware required in phones launched from that point on. Now Samsung Pay is all about NFC, just like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

What banks are compatible with Samsung Wallet/Pay

These are a few of the compatible banks and services supported by Samsung Pay in the US:

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • JP Morgan Chase
  • Bank of America
  • Citi
  • US Bank
  • PNC
  • Chase

Click here for a long list of additional providers in the US.

These are a few of the compatible banks and services supported by Samsung Pay in the UK:

  • American Express
  • Danske Bank
  • Santander
  • MBNA
  • Nationwide
  • HSBC
  • First Direct
  • M&S Bank
  • Co-op Bank
  • Starling Bank
  • John Lewis Finance

Click here for the full list of providers in the UK.

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Samsung Pay+: what to use if your bank isn't supported

Since not every bank is directly supported through Samsung Pay, and so Samsung partnered with Curve to offer the ability to use any Visa or Mastercard from any provider. Using this service you can link your credit/debit card to the Curve service, effectively using it as a middle man, but having the ability to have multiple cards linked to one single virtual card.

What are the payment limits on Samsung Pay?

The payment limit is set by the bank or vendor, not by Samsung, so is different in different regions - not a fixed £100 maximum per transaction, as with contactless cards.

On the whole though, you will not be restricted to a specific limit in the UK, just like you aren't with Apple Pay.

How secure is Samsung Pay?

In terms of security, Samsung Pay details are protected by Samsung's Knox real-time hacking surveillance and rooting prevention, and no card details are stored on either a Samsung server or the device itself.

Just like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay uses tokenisation. Card payments are made secure by creating a number or token that replaces your card details. This token is stored within a secure element chip on your device, and when a payment is initiated, the token is passed to the retailer or merchant. The retailer therefore never has direct access to your card details.

In addition, Samsung Pay offers ARM TrustZone to further protect transaction information from attacks.

What else can Samsung Wallet do?

As mentioned, Samsung essentially combined Samsung Pass with Samsung Pay to create one app that does it all. As well as adding payment cards you can add loyalty cards, vouchers, digital keys (for unlocking smart doot locks and car doors), health passes, and boarding passes for plane travel. All in one place.