Mastercard powers launch of Samsung Pay Card for Korean consumers

By Edil Corneille

Today, Mastercard announced its collaboration with Samsung Electronics and Samsung Card for the launch of the Samsung Pay Card. The co-branded digital and physical credit card is expected to offer Korean consumers a new level of digital payment experience. It is available through Samsung Pay that exclusively provides users of the app a range of discounts and enhanced functions.

Launched on August 31, the Samsung Pay Card is a co-branded card in Korea for the Samsung Pay app owned by Samsung Electronics. Samsung Pay – a mobile wallet in Korea – had about 19 million users as of August, with accumulated payments of 80 trillion won (US$67.5 billion) since the service started in August 2015.

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In cooperation with payments company Mastercard, the Samsung Pay Card is also said to be bringing more flexibility and choice to cross-border payments with a new service that allows foreign merchants to accept cards registered for overseas payments on the Samsung Pay app. The Samsung Pay Card can be used at Mastercard merchants equipped with NFC readers worldwide and offers a 5 per cent discount on payments made via the Samsung Pay app.

“As Korea’s economy grows ever more digital, Mastercard is helping to connect consumers to digital payment experiences that are quick and convenient with payment options offering the safety of touch-free transactions and the protection of world-class security,” said Dongchun Choi, Division President, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan & Korea, Mastercard.

Applying for the Samsung Pay Card is said to be quick and easy on Samsung Pay. Once approved, the digital card is available immediately on the app and the physical card is delivered later. Samsung Pay users also get access to features previously available only on the Samsung Card app, including discount details, spending levels linked to benefits, repayments due and overseas payment blocking.

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When used via Samsung Pay in Korea, the Samsung Pay Card offers benefits such as a 1 per cent discount on offline payments, a 0.5 per cent additional discount on online payments, a 3 per cent discount on Samsung Pay Coupon Shop payments and a 2 per cent discount on Cashbee transit top-up by the end of December.