Samsung Reportedly Allowing Users to Sign Up for Early Access to Samsung Pay in India

Samsung has been rumoured for months to launch the mobile payments platform Samsung Pay in India. The company seems to have finally started signing up users in India for early access. Sammobile reports that users of the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), and Galaxy A7 (2016) can now sign-up for an early access of the new mobile payments system. According to the details leaked via a screenshot, Samsung Pay supports credit and debit cards for MasterCard and Visa from banks like Axis, HDFC, ICICI, SBI, and Standard Chartered. The report adds that the support for Citibank will be added soon.

Unfortunately, the South Korean company is yet to formally announce the availability of the Samsung Pay mobile payments system. The report claims that Samsung will start sending an email to users who registered for the service. On successfully signing up, Samsung notifies the user by sending an email that reads, "Thank you for registering for Samsung Pay Early Access Program." The mail further reads, "The Early Access Program will be available shortly, details of which will be shared subsequently."

Notably, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will be also added as compatible devices for the Samsung Pay mobile payments service. Samsung is also said to add the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones to its Samsung Pay system, once these handsets are announced later this month. The supported Galaxy devices reportedly received Samsung Pay support via a recent software update.

An earlier report claimed that the company has been testing the service in India since December 2016, and tied-up with American Express. Samsung Pay supports both NFC and MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) that allows a user to send a magnetic signal from smartphone to the payment terminal's card reader. However, Samsung Pay only works with high-end premium Samsung smartphones, limiting its reach.