Here in Australia (at least) there is wide support from all the major banks for both payment platforms. Apart from Apple’s Apple Pay, Google’s phone and services have more of an option when it comes to mobile payment options.
The top 3 things they have over each other (in my opinion) are:
Google Pay’s merits (over Samsung Pay) include:
- Better integration with Google services, i.e. your Google Play purchases are in one place;
- Better integration with checkouts that support mobile OS payment, i.e. checking out with Google Pay without having to enter payment details; and
- Stores passes, e.g. boarding passes (if and when you can travel again).
However, on the flip side, Samsung Pay has many other benefits that Google Pay lacks:
- More secure than Google Pay in that you must authenticate before payment (even though the phone is already unlocked), similar to Apple Pay, whereas Google Pay will let you pay (from any screen) as long as you have the phone unlocked with NFC on;
- Support to add loyalty cards that aren’t in the pre-defined database of supported loyalty cards (I would also put in here that you can add custom artwork if the image isn’t supplied by the Samsung Pay app for the retailer’s loyalty program);
- Samsung Pay can still work if you have NFC disabled on the phone (it will just turn on for the period you are using it for payment then return to being off), whereas Google requires your phone’s NFC be on 24/7 to make payments.
Check with your bank’s website to see if they support your card or account type. This does vary from bank to bank so do make sure you do your due diligence beforehand.
I have (and still remain) signed up for a bank when Samsung Pay was in its infancy stages just so I could use it on my phone and watch.
Yours truly,
Unofficial Tech Support 