SEOUL, South Korea—Two more major banks have signed on with Samsung Pay.
Samsung announced that it will soon support eligible credit and debit cards from TD Bank and Regions Bank. That is in addition to the Visa and MasterCard banks and credit unions launched since early March 2016.
Payments analysts have debated whether Samsung Pay, with its greater POS acceptance among merchants than Apple Pay, will gain market share dominance despite launching later than Apple Pay.
In addition to having NFC, Samsung Pay also uses "magnetic secure transmission," which "spoofs" a traditional card swipe with magnetic fields when a user holds their device near a payment terminal. That allows Samsung Pay to be used with most existing mag-stripe terminals.
Samsung Pay now has support from 130 banks and credit unions, which means that Samsung Pay covers 75% of the U.S. debit and credit card market.
Most recently, as a way to motivate more consumers to use its mobile payments service, Samsung announced it was offering a financial incentive to use Samsung Pay.
Users who have downloaded — but not used — Samsung Pay will be able to earn an incentive for using it: a $30 gift card. The offer is only for those who got halfway there on usage, Pymnts.com reported. Those who already use Samsung Pay get nothing.
The new offer is not a one-shot deal, customers must use Samsung Pay three times between April 15 and May 10.
Once those purchases are made, Samsung will send a digital $30 gift card to the establishment of a user’s choice: Best Buy, eBay, GameStop or Regal Entertainment, Pymnts.com reported.