The New York City transit payment system is about to be to modernized. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is green lit a hefty $573 million contract that will install NFC-equipped fare systems across NYC. The plan should start installing readers in 600 buses and 500 subway turnstiles starting in late 2018, so you may tap your phone or card sooner than you might have thought with a 2021 rollout. The rollout won't reach every corner of the city (plus Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North trains) until late 2020. MetroCards will continue to work through 2023, so don't worry about rushing to replace your phone or bank cards. The new system shouldn't be picky about payment types, either, so you can expect Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay among others.
According to a Reddit post, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay can be used to make withdrawals and transfers at Bank of America ATMs without the need for a physical card. Apparently, this only works at some Bank of America ATMs, but it's scheduled to roll out to all Bank of America ATMs this year. Reportedly, this doesn’t work for deposits yet.
Samsung really wants you to sign up for Samsung Pay, so they’re sweeting the deal by offering a free pair of Level U wireless headphones if you sign up. You’ll need to be at least 18 years old and own either a Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ or Note 5 to be eligible. Once you activate the service on your smartphone and add a working card, you need to go to the More menu in the Samsung Pay app and tap Announcements, then Samsung Pay Card Registration Offer, and then agree to the terms to get a coupon code for the black pair of Level U headphones (which are worth $69.99). The promotion ends on February 22 at 11:59 pm EST and you’ll need to redeem the code by March 15.
Samsung has confirmed the service will go live in Europe in early 2016, and it promises to tell us more during its Unpacked event at Mobile World Congress. Head of Samsung Pay Nathalie Oestmann, confirmed that the service will launch in Europe this year, and promised Samsung would reveal more about its rollout plans for the U.K. at Mobile World Congress, where the Galaxy S7 will be revealed. Samsung Pay is only available in South Korea and the U.S. at the moment. The company needs to be in more places if they want to try and get ahead of Apple and Google. What do you think of Samsung Pay ?
Today at their Unpacked event, Samsung has unveiled there mobile payment solution Samsung Pay, which will be available on the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+. Samsung Pay will offer NFC payments just like Apple Pay, the real different feature is its ability to mimic traditional magnetic card swipes. That means it should be compatible with the majority of stores with standard credit card readers. A beta test for Samsung Pay will kick off in the US this month. Samsung Pay goes into full affect on September 28.
UPDATE 9/28/16 - To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Samsung Pay, Samsung has added coupons to the mobile payment service.
