Which is better: Apple Pay or Samsung Pay comparison of NFC payment systems in Russia

Which payment system is better

Despite the fact that the technology is being implemented slowly, because for widespread implementation it is necessary to install appropriate equipment, such a payment system has great prospects. The race of famous brands has provided the embodiment of payment systems on smartphones running on the world’s most popular platforms. The contactless payment service is available if the user has one of the following applications installed:

• Apple Pay;
• Samsung Pay;
• Android Pay.

Each of the payment systems has its own characteristics and advantages. Which one is better, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay is more of an individual question and depends on many factors. The choice primarily depends on the brand of smartphone that you prefer. For the iPhone, only Apple Pay will be applicable, the Samsung Pay payment system is suitable for owners of devices of the same brand, and Android devices support the Google payment system.

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The eternal “battle of the titans” does not allow the products of world brands to lag behind each other in technical development, so there are few obvious differences in the use of systems, and for an ordinary user they are barely noticeable, and the principle of contactless payment is similar in all cases, and comprehend it doesn’t take much effort.

Apple’s development was the first to enter the arena, which entered the masses in 2015 (Russians had the opportunity to evaluate the service by 2016), followed by Samsung and Google, finalizing Google Wallet. In Russia, the Android Pay service was launched later than the others, a year ago, however, the payment tool quickly gained popularity due to the large number of Android OS users. By the way, owners of Samsung smartphones can also use this payment system.

Apple Pay and Android Pay operations are performed using NFC (Near-Field Communication) technology at the expense of terminals with an NFC module. The largest retail outlets in big cities have already acquired the necessary equipment, but sellers of a slightly smaller scale are in no hurry to equip their workplaces with new devices, and there is no question of very small stores or those located in villages – technology gets there for decades.

To pay for a purchase, you just need to bring your smartphone to such a terminal, then it will give a magnetic signal about the transaction. Here, Samsung outperforms its competitors using both technologies, making the system more applicable in practice, but the absence of payments through applications equalizes the chances, and here Apple Pay, which has this option, is already ahead, successfully expanding the list of supported services.

Why does a user need NFC payment systems?

Samsung Pay or Apple Pay are payment services to which a consumer can link a bank card and make payments for goods and services without carrying a credit card (or debit card) using the NFC contactless payment method. These payment systems act as a special “layer” between the bank card and the store.

• Reason 1. You can pay for your purchase in a store, bar, salon, boutique with your phone. Literally with your telephone in any place where there are payment terminals with NFC technology. For most of the payment transactions, you do not even need to run the wallet program. It is enough just to bring the smartphone closer to the NFC terminal at the checkout, then put your finger on the button under the screen.
• Reason 2: With NFC payments, you do not need to disclose bank card information: cardholder name, expiration date, or number. The beauty of this payment method is that the smartphone sends only a token to the terminal (it is a kind of one-time key), after which the bank that issued the card checks the validity and sends a positive signal to the terminal confirming the purchase. Validity has the right to check only the bank that issued your card. After this procedure, you can pay with your smartphone at any point of sale for security without a doubt and be sure that no one will copy your card and your data will not be compromised.
• Reason 3. If you make a payment for at least a couple of rubles through the NFC payment system from Samsung or Apple, then only your fingerprint is needed to confirm the transaction. When compared with PayPass (MasterCard) or PayWave (VISA) contactless technologies, in most cases they are configured in such a way that for small purchases (usually less than 1000 rubles), entering a PIN code is not required.

Ease of use

Any of the presented payment systems is easy to use. Apple Pay and Android Pay have automatic activation near terminals. You only need to authorize the payment through a fingerprint scanner, where you just need to put your finger. The same steps need to be done in the case of Samsung Pay, but first activate the application using the button on the smartphone screen, which also does not take much time.

Support for banks and operators

To Samsung’s credit, it is worth noting that the Korean company was able to negotiate with six Russian banks at once, among which are the top market players with millions of customers throughout Russia – VTB24, Alfa-Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, Russian Standard and MTS-Bank .

The system of the American company Apple started working with only one bank, but the largest in Russia – Sberbank, which, by the way, among the target audience of Apple Pay, has a rather controversial reputation. According to representatives of the Apple Company, Sberbank will have a full exclusive for a month, and from November 2016, other Russian banks will also start connecting to the system.

The second important nuance is that both payment systems in Russia currently work only with MasterCard cards. By the way, if you are eager to try out a new payment system on your phone (supporting NFC payments) as soon as possible, then you should know that Sberbank is able to issue unnamed MasterCard “Momentum Standard” cards right in front of the client – this process takes no more than 15 minutes, including card activation.

It is worth noting that partner banks also offer “instant connection” for Samsung Pay, for example, Alfa-Bank in some branches even issues MasterCard Standard personalized cards in just 10 minutes right at the client’s side.

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Apple Pay will work on iPhones starting with iPhone 6 / 6 Plus. If we talk about the “smart watch” Apple Watch, then they also support contactless payment, but they themselves need an iPhone as a “partner” to work. Any model will do, starting with iPhone 5 with Apple Wallet ios app installed.

Koreans have a much wider list of compatible devices – there are as many as ten models: both versions of S7, A5 / A7 / A9 of 2016 (models of 2015 do not fit), Samsung Galaxy Edge S6 in all variations, Note 5 and 7. But in Russia, this list will be a little less. If we talk about Samsung Gear S2 watches, they support the Pay system, but not in Russia, and the top Gear S3 watches have not yet been delivered to Russian stores.

Each of the considered payment systems is supported by major financial institutions and telecom operators AT{amp}amp;T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile (for devices brought from the USA). Operators do not use modified SIM cards, all kinds of chips and other elements to ensure security, but your bank, knowing the phone number to which the card is linked, can block the service with any suspicious activity, even if you did not make this request.

The longest, and regularly updated list of partner banks for the product from Apple, users can work with debit cards and credit cards of the largest banks in Russia, such as Sberbank, VTB-24, Otkritie, Gazprombank, Tinkoff, Yandex. Money” and other well-known financial institutions.

The Android Pay system, despite its youth, also does not intend to lag behind, and cooperates with banks VTB-24, Rosselkhozbank, Bars, Otkritie, Tochka and others. The Samsung system works with Visa and MasterCard cards of many banking organizations, including Raiffeisenbank, Sberbank, Tinkoff and others.

Payment without internet

What is the advantage of Apple and Samsung payment systems over conventional bank cards? From the point of view of speed, they have no special advantages – a smartphone, like a card, must also be taken out of your pocket and applied to the payment terminal. In terms of speed, only the Apple Watch wins here – they are always on hand, and you don’t need to get them out of nowhere.

If we compare the systems with each other, then Samsung Pay loses a little – on the smartphone you need to activate the application in advance or “pull” the virtual card onto the screen with a swipe from the bottom of the display (the smartphone “understands” the swipe even when the screen is off). i Phone, on the other hand, can be applied to the terminal even when it is locked – it is enough to put your finger on the Touch ID sensor after the signal, and the purchase will be made.

Samsung, on the other hand, wins in another way – you can pay them almost everywhere where cards are accepted. True, several times it was not possible to pay for the purchase by phone – the terminal gave out something like “This type of card is not supported”, but this is more an exception than a rule. It is better to apply a smartphone to the terminal on the right side, where ordinary plastic cards with a magnetic strip are rolled.

Very often the ideas of the developers are shattered by the harsh Russian reality. In a fairly large number of Russian stores (especially in small retail outlets), cashiers have terminals, and only a keyboard for entering a pin code is available to the buyer. It is unlikely that anyone would want to give their expensive smartphone to a stranger, so in such places you have to pay the old fashioned way, by card or cash.

Paying by phone can be convenient for people with multiple bank cards. All of them can be added to the application and used in a particular situation, one or another – for example, when you have increased cashback on different cards in certain stores.

Apple Pay and Samsung Pay use high-security chips to store user data, and financial transactions are carried out on smartphones, so there is no need to connect to the Internet to make payments. In the case of Android Pay, the situation is different. Since smartphones are subject to more democratic requirements, they may not have chips that store user information on the device, while unique digital tokens for each operation will be generated on the server.

Where can I pay with Samsung Pay and Apple Pay?

The American Apple Pay works only through NFC – contactless payment technology at a distance of several centimeters. If we talk about terminals installed in stores that work with PayWave / PayPass, then in very rare cases they support NFC payments, keep this in mind. That is, when a terminal that does not support NFC is installed at a point of sale, then you will have to “roll the card with a magnetic stripe” without fail or insert it into the card reader if it has a chip, the Apple Pay payment system does not work here.

If we talk about Samsung Pay, then it has a more advantageous position, as it can imitate the magnetic stripe of a bank card. Of course, you don’t have to insert your smartphone into the card reader of the terminal, it will be enough just to bring it closer, and the terminal itself calculates the “magnetic field” generated by the Samsung smartphone for payment.

Safety

Many users are concerned about the security of payment systems data, which is quite logical, because it concerns the financial well-being of the owner of a bank account. When using NFC terminals, special tokens are used to perform the operation, which are transmitted in encrypted form instead of bank card data.

ATTENTION. The protection scheme for MST payments is different, when this type of payment is activated, the induction coil of the Samsung device passes an alternative current in a short time period, creating a dynamic magnetic field that is readable by the terminal, so payment is similar to using a plastic card and the risks of losing funds are no higher than, if you paid by card.

Even if an attacker takes possession of an Apple, Samsung or Android device, you will not be able to use funds using Google’s Android Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay. At the same time, you will immediately detect the loss (whereas with cards this is not always possible), and you can use the Find My Phone program for greater certainty or contact the bank and stop the service.

Comparison table of payment systems Apple Pay and Samsung Pay

Summing up: comparing Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, it is worth emphasizing that Apple Pay only works on iPhones, starting from the Sixth model, and only through NFC – today in Russia this is only possible with Sberbank. The advantage of Samsung Pay is that the service is available on six different smartphones, is compatible with all terminals for receiving cards, and works with a large number of Russian banks.

And yes, the cheapest smartphone that supports Samsung Pay is the Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) worth 23,990 rubles (on the official Samsung website or from dealers). To work with Apple Pay, you will have to fork out for an iPhone SE at a price of 34,990 rubles (Apple official website).