back to article Why being late isn't fatal for Samsung Pay

Samsung has finally launched its mobile payments service, Samsung Pay, in the UK. The chaebol acquired the technology by buying LoopPay and launched the service in South Korea in August 2015. It seems odd that you still have to swipe a Nectar card separately after you've done your contactless payment thing with your phone or …

  1. Planty Bronze badge

    Erm....

    " it can act as a plastic Oyster card: it will get you through the barriers without having to wake up and unlock the phone, as rivals do."

    I don't have to do either of these things on nexus5x and android pay.

    Also can't remember a magnetic stripe was any use outside America (with its 1990s banking systems). So yes, Samsung pay is dead in the water... Late and irrelevant.

  2. ecarlseen

    Emulating 1970s tech instead of tokenizing.

    Yeah, that's exactly what I want in a "secure" payment system - broadcasting my unencrypted card info with a radio in order to fake out some insanely obsolete kit. Samsung's major advantage over Apple has been their ability to leverage their vertical supply chain to get bleeding edge tech into their phones more quickly. Seems like they're content to do the opposite here.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Emulating 1970s tech instead of tokenizing.

      It's tokenised so not your card info, but yeah massively less secure.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Emulating 1970s tech instead of tokenizing.

      Indeed, much less secure than Android Pay and Apple Products, Samsung has it's 1970s throwback card reader support, really only because of US banking terminals

      With contactless so widespread in the UK, why would you want to use Samsung pay based on something banks have been so keen to ditch for years?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "the device can also act as a passive magnetic reader"

    You sure? I think you mean MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) which acts as a magnetic transmitter, in order for non-contactless readers to be fooled into thinking a mag stripe has been swiped through the reader.

    Clever stuff to make it work with 20th century technologies, but not enabled in the UK due to huge market penetration of contactless and it being significantly less secure than contactless. You are somewhat protected due to it using the same tokenisation as Apple Pay and Android Pay (basically, a unique identifier that's different to your card number). It might have more luck in the US where contactless is less ubiquitous.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nectar

    You can load a Tesco loyalty 'clubcard' into AndroidPay, use the clubcard app to present a scannable bar code, or use their dedicated payment app. Nectar, OTOH, only has the app which does not even present a barcode, just (after some menu navigation) a huge (19 digit) number you must read to the cashier (because they aren't allowed to touch your phone).

    Off topic I know but it's so bizarre I had to tell someone

    1. Martin Summers Silver badge

      Re: Nectar

      "Off topic I know but it's so bizarre I had to tell someone"

      It's ok AC we are here for you, you can tell us anything and I'm glad you felt you could.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    It's from Samsung ...

    And the first word that doesn't come to mind when I think of Samsung is 'security'.

  6. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

    Security?

    >>it will get you through the barriers without having to wake up and unlock the phone, as rivals do<<

    Security is always a balance between convenience and inconvenience. Convenience appeals on the surface, making it attractive to users, but the inconvenience of security breaches is hidden. It is always the same with computing products - you need to dig deeper and not just be fooled by any in-the-shop whizzbangery.

    Samsung are masters of making stuff look good in a shop, but the deeper functionality is a bit thin meaning in the long run less convenience.

    It has been the age-old argument in computing to trade security (and correctness) for speed. Mostly, programmers come down on the side of speed, but this has been the wrong decision. We now know that security is of the utmost importance. It sounds from The Register's article that Samsung have done it again and come down on the side of shallow convenience which can lead to long-term inconvenience of having your security compromised.

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