When Apple introduced its own bank card Apple Card last year, many were confident that now all manufacturers would begin to massively enter the financial services market with their own credit cards or debit cards. However, as time went on, no other company was in a hurry to announce plans to launch a branded payment card. It wasn't until this spring that Google and Huawei confirmed their plans to take over the financial industry, but they never released anything. Now it was Samsung's turn to imagine, but not to release anything, which was limited to just one announcement.
Samsung wants to launch its payment card
Samsung has introduced its payment card, which is designed to work with the Samsung Pay service. Unlike the Apple Card, which was presented in Cupertino last fall, the Samsung card will be a debit card and will be issued by the American bank SoFi. That is, it turns out that by the time of release, the company's new financial product will be available only to US users and not available to everyone else. However, Apple also started from the North American market, and therefore there is nothing surprising in this.
How to get a Samsung Card
Samsung's payment card will be debit, not credit
You can order Samsung Card directly through the Samsung Pay app. This is a very responsible event, and therefore Samsung made the card not a credit card, but a debit card, thus simplifying the process of verification of applicants and expanding their total number. But despite the difference from Apple Card, Samsung Card will also provide users with the same services. It will allow you to conveniently track your purchases, control expenses and receive cashback on favorable terms. It remains only to find out which ones.
Samsung does not specify whether it will be possible to receive a physical card with a virtual card, under what conditions it will be serviced, and whether users will be allowed to transfer money from one account to another without commission. Moreover, I got the impression that the Koreans themselves do not really know what kind of product they are launching. Of course, they know, it's just that the card is most likely at an early stage of development, and therefore a lot can still change – from the conditions for transferring funds to the amount of cashback that users will receive from purchases.
Why do you need Samsung Card
SoFi Bank is a bank for students and poor people. This means that Samsung Card will target the same audience.
Why is Samsung in such a hurry? Obviously, after looking at how smartly competitors are announcing their own cards, the company decided that it should not delay entering the financial services market. Not only is this a great opportunity to collect colossal amounts of data about your users, but also a way to link them to branded products. After all, if the user sits on the Samsung Card, making it the main card, it will be difficult for him to switch to a competitor's smartphone, because he will have to abandon the usual means of payment.
I would assume that Samsung Card will be targeted primarily at young people and people with low incomes. Samsung hasn’t announced this publicly, but I delved deeper into the company's partner, SoFi Bank, and found that it positions itself as a bank for students and those who “have every dollar in their account”. This wording is used by the bank itself when describing the advantages of a branded card: the bank does not charge a cent for servicing and withdrawing money, and also allows you to return 5% of the total amount of purchases up to $ 100 per month.
Bank cards for Android
Samsung Pay Cash did not prevent Samsung Card from launching
Significantly enough, until now, neither Huawei nor Google have released their bank card to the market. Of course, there is nothing special to ask about the latter – after all, the information about Google Card that appeared in the public field was not officially released, but was a leak that the company's employees made by adding the relevant information to the Google Pay application. However, this is the best evidence that none of the companies have these cards ready yet, which means they will not be able to compete with Apple very soon.
Few remember that Samsung tried to launch the Samsung Pay Cash card last year, which looked like a pretty lucrative form of payment. Then the company promised everyone who would issue the card $ 5 as a gift to the account, as well as very favorable and transparent terms of money transfers. But either the Samsung Pay Cash project 'didn't fly', or Samsung just wanted to upgrade it, but, one way or another, Samsung Card is our new reality. At least until next year.