Contactless Payment in UK with Samsung Galaxy s series?

[Julian]

After getting somewhat annoyed by Apple's sky-high prices for the new iPhone Xs and Xs+ I'm considering a switch to Android and I think an s9 would be my weapon of choice. Having been an iPhone user for almost a decade I have numerous concerns but one big one, because I use it multiple times every day, is what the experience of contactless payment with a Samsung phone would be like. I'm also a bit confused because the Google Play Store equivalent of the Amex app that I use on my iPhone mentions in the description that it can be used for contactless payments (with some bad reviews from users about it crashing and letting them down) whereas on my iPhone I only use the Amex app to look at balances and statements and the actual contactless payment is done by my having registered my Amex card (and a few other cards too) as payment methods in the built in Apple Wallet app. There is however a thing called Samsung Pay and I think also Android Pay of which I believe that at least Samsung Pay is now live in the UK. I see that Samsung Pay does support Amex and, judging by the web site (https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-pay/), it does look very much like the Apple Wallet experience that I have now.

This aspect is important to me though so I would be grateful if someone could give me an existence proof that Samsung Pay does do what I think it does, does indeed work in the UK at any terminal that can take a contactless card transaction (i.e. pretty much everywhere now), and that it is reliable.

I'd also be grateful if someone could briefly talk me through the experience of using it. For instance here is my experience with my current iPhone 6s.

1 - Reach into my trouser pocket and double-click the home button as I pull out the phone. This automatically launches Apple Wallet and in the time I have had my thumb on the home button it has authenticated my fingerprint and put wallet into make-payment mode with my default (Amex) card active.
2 - Touch the phone to the reader to pay. My finger is no longer on the home button at this point but hovering just next to the power-off button.
3 - Power off the phone as I put it back in my pocket.

It's all so quick that I'm almost like a Samurai, I can do the whole operation from phone in pocket to phone back in pocket in under 2 seconds (I've timed myself) although usually the terminal itself adds another second or two of delay. Some of the speed comes from the fingerprint sensor and how I can reach into my pocket and double click it there which wouldn't be possible with newer FaceID phones but I'm wondering how slick one can get the experience with Samsung Pay.

I've got to admit that I am still seriously on the fence on this one. It's amazing how over many years one can get used to so many aspects of a phone and hence how many potential leaps in the dark have to be made in moving, e.g. this payment thing, how does it sort music (will it obey the same custom sorting tags or what re-tagging will be necessary or even possible), moving from iBooks to Kindle (presumably), which of my financial apps will support fingerprint login on Android, will the battery life be predictable or will rogue background processes catch me out sometimes, how does the basic calendar app look and if I don't like it are there third-party ones that suit me better, do Android versions of various apps that I use exist and look roughly the same and, if not, what are appropriate alternatives, etc etc etc.

- Julian

[Watis]

Julian,

I'm not in a position to answer your questions directly as I've never used contactless payment software on my (Samsung) phone.

But, thinking laterally, my idea is to purchase an inexpensive Samsung model, the J5 might be suitable, and see how you get on with that.

If the payment software will allow itself to be 'live' on more than one device concurrently, you can conduct parallel testing against your iPhone before you commit to the expense of an S9.

And if you were to go that route, you'll have a spare phone for situations you might not want to take a really expensive phone into.

HTH,

Watis

[Infrasonic]

Android Pay is now Google Pay (get used to Google doing this kind of thing...), a list of stores that accept it here...https://pay.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/where-to-use/
Banks here...https://pay.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/banks/

I have one of my CC's on it, used it for purchasing my Nexus 5, some app purchases that were heavily discounted, but so far I don't use it in store as I have contactless DC/CC's anyway.
The Nexus 5 is NFC enabled, so I can do it and it's all live ready to roll at any point as a plan B.

The point about a second cheap phone is a good one, I have an old Nokia 3120 2.5G for all phone calls as it's not worth nicking and is actually really good at that one job of phone calls, I can hear the caller in noisy environments, they can hear me. The weakest aspect of smartphones for me unless you go down the BT or wired headset route.

[Julian]

Hi Watis,

Not a bad idea at all. I was planning to purchase a £50 cheapo Android phone anyway, partly to play with apps, music etc but also because I'm thinking of moving my landline to VOIP and a cheap Android phone with VOIP software on it would make a decent handset and being connected directly to my home WiFi would remove the need for a DECT base station.

Looking at the Samsung Pay FAQ a J5 isn't actually supported. The FAQ says "Samsung Pay is currently available with Samsung Galaxy S9+, S9, Note8, S8+, S8, S7 edge, S7, S6 edge+, S6 edge, S6, A8, A6, A3, A5 2017 and Samsung Gear S3 & Gear Sport ". An A3 looks to be about the same price (£150-ish) as a J5 anyway so would presumably be the one to go for. I could then relegate it to being the cordless handset in my home office where it having a fingerprint sensor would actually be useful regardless of what I decide for my mobile. I quite often do some of my home banking on an iDevice anyway since it is easier to fingerprint-authenticate than log into the web site, having a fingerprint-enabled phone on my desk with various apps installed would mean that a suitable device was always at hand so a worthwhile investment even if I stay in the iPhone world for my mobile phone.

Infrasonic - just saw your reply too. Thanks. Looks like Google Pay can be used anywhere there is the contactless symbol but, as a generic solution, there is always the concern about whether a particular manufacturer's handset model has integrated the biometric sensor with it. I think an A3 might be the way to go to experiment with Samsung Pay and the whole Android ecosystem. It would also be interesting, purely out of curiosity, to see if Google Pay and Samsung Pay can coexist on the same phone. Perhaps Samsung Pay is simply Samsung slapping branding onto it's implementation of Google Pay on its handsets.

- Julian

[Infrasonic]

Infrasonic - just saw your reply too. Thanks. Looks like Google Pay can be used anywhere there is the contactless symbol but, as a generic solution, there is always the concern about whether a particular manufacturer's handset model has integrated the biometric sensor with it. I think an A3 might be the way to go to experiment with Samsung Pay and the whole Android ecosystem. It would also be interesting, purely out of curiosity, to see if Google Pay and Samsung Pay can coexist on the same phone. Perhaps Samsung Pay is simply Samsung slapping branding onto it's implementation of Google Pay on its handsets.

I'm pretty sure they are independent systems, Samsung has the size and clout to do it and supports magnetic strip as well as NFC (useful for the USA if not so much elsewhere...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Pay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Pay

[AF62]

This aspect is important to me though so I would be grateful if someone could give me an existence proof that Samsung Pay does do what I think it does, does indeed work in the UK at any terminal that can take a contactless card transaction (i.e. pretty much everywhere now), and that it is reliable.

I'd also be grateful if someone could briefly talk me through the experience of using it. For instance here is my experience with my current iPhone 6s.

1 - Reach into my trouser pocket and double-click the home button as I pull out the phone. This automatically launches Apple Wallet and in the time I have had my thumb on the home button it has authenticated my fingerprint and put wallet into make-payment mode with my default (Amex) card active.
2 - Touch the phone to the reader to pay. My finger is no longer on the home button at this point but hovering just next to the power-off button.
3 - Power off the phone as I put it back in my pocket.

I can't tell you about Samsung Pay as I don't have a Samsung, but I can tell you about Android Pay on my Moto G5s.

1 - Reach into my trouser pocket and pull out the phone and just touch the fingerprint sensor to unlock it. The phone is in payment mode whenever the screen is on, so there is no need to launch Android Pay unless you want to use a card other than the default.
2 - Touch the phone to the reader to pay.
3 - Put it back in my pocket (it will turn itself off anyway).

The only issue I have had is that some retailers contactless machines don't like Amex contactless, but that is the same whether you use a real Amex card or contactless on a phone.

Samsung phones have one advantage over other Android phones (as mentioned on the web page you linked to) in that a card can be set as a ‘transport card’ and the phone touched on an Oyster reader without needing to turn the screen on.