Westpac have always been slow off the mark when it comes to technology — they still insist that a 6 digit password with no punctuation and only letters (capitals only) and numbers is secure enough. Late last year they joined the mobile payment revolution by offering Android Pay to some of their customers. Now they are actually getting out in front by teaming with Samsung to offer Samsung pay to their customers.
Samsung Pay seems to be available to all Westpac debit and credit card holders and can be used with any compatible Samsung device. Yes, that includes the soon-to-be released Galaxy S8 and S8+ which is a boon for not just Samsung but great advertising for Westpac as well. Not wasting any time, the service will be available from 8am today.
Samsung also announced that the new iris scan technology in the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will feature as an authentication method for Samsung Pay. PIN and fingerprint as authentication methods are also available — authentication is required before a user can make a transaction using Samsung Pay.
Samsung have also launched an easy way to add card details into Samsung Pay — NFC provisioning. All you have to do is tap the card onto the back of the NFC-enabled Samsung smartphone and the details are added.
Samsung Pay has yet to make any significant inroads into the Australian banking sector and are hoping that the nine million Westpac customers will help turn that around. The newer Samsung phones still offer Android Pay as well, although Westpac do not support Android Pay on all of their credit cards. We suspect that Samsung are hard at work trying to get support from other banks with the release of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ imminent.
Do you actually use mobile payments? Will you use this instead of Android Pay?
