Android Pay launches in Asia starting with Singapore

SINGAPORE — Starting Tuesday local time, most Android users in Singapore will be able to link their credit cards to their phones and tap to pay at retail outlets on the island.

This makes Singapore the third country globally to get the Google mobile payment service after the U.S., which was first in September last year, and the UK, which got it in May.

Android Pay works with NFC-capable Android phones running KitKat 4.4 or higher, which has been running on most models released since mid-2014.

The Singapore debut of the service comes hot on the heels of competitors Apple Pay, which launched here in April, and Samsung Pay which started its Southeast Asia roll out two weeks ago in Singapore.

Like Apple and Samsung, which support the majority of banks here, Google has made sure its big launch day here came with the backing of large banks, too. Android Pay will support MasterCard and Visa cards from DBS/POSB, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered and UOB.

MasterCard estimates this will cover some 30,000 contactless terminals islandwide.

How to start:

1. Download the Android Pay app on the Google Play Store.

2. Set advanced security options like fingerprint unlocking, if your device supports it.

3. Add your card(s).

4. At merchants' contactless terminals, wake the phone up and hold it over the reader. A checkmark will indicate when the transaction is successful.

What's Android Pay's edge?

For one, reach. With Android Pay on many more devices dating back to those at least two years old, that's a lot more than Samsung Pay, which only supports the latest Samsung handsets.

And Android Pay also allows for easier in-app purchases, similar to what Apple Pay does. Apps which support it will allow users to check out purchases without having to leave the app.

Ng Zhi Ying, a Forrester researcher, told Mashable that neither Apple Pay nor Samsung Pay support loyalty card merchants yet, so Google could get the jump on the competition by linking those to its payment process.

Google noted that for its Singapore launch, it's been working with a couple of local rewards points programmes such as NTUC Link Plus! and CapitaLand's Capitastar to incorporate their rewards points, but it didn't note when the loyalty programmes would be fully supported by Android Pay.

But Samsung has one trick up its sleeve that neither Apple nor Google have: a technology it calls magnetic secure transmission (MST). It allows Samsung Pay phones to emit a magnetic signal that mimics the magnetic strip on a credit card.

That means Samsung Pay will work on older credit card machines, not just contactless ones, far broadening its reach.

Proper credit card integration with mobile phones marks a step forward for tap-to-pay transactions in Singapore, which over the years has had a smattering of fragmented contactless options available. These include the pre-paid EZ-Link commuter card — which was recently supported by Samsung phones — and mobile wallets like SingTel's Dash, which was made available Last November on Android phones.

EZ-Link and Dash are both supported at some convenience stores and supermarkets, but neither can count on as wide a support base as Visa's and MasterCard's terminals. Plus, you have to top up the wallets, making them cumbersome to use.

Visa said it already sees more than 2 million contactless payments made each month on its payWave cards in supermarkets here,

You can now use Apple Pay at some Bank of America ATMs

You can now use Apple Pay to withdraw cash from a number of ATMs offered by Bank of America. It's a major addition to the Apple Pay network as Bank of America is the second largest bank in the U.S.

A detailed graphic is now posted on the Bank of America website showing exactly how to use the Apple Pay system at its ATM terminals around the country. After you upload your Bank of America debit card to your digital wallet, you can immediately begin using the ATMs.

However, the Apple Pay functionality is, for now, only available at select ATMs that are emblazoned with the Apple Pay logo and equipped with an NFC reader, allowing you to hold your device over the logo and begin the process. Currently, the ability to deposit funds is not available, according to the bank's website.

The first hints that Apple Pay would be coming to Bank of America as well as Wells Fargo and other ATMs cropped up back in January. Around the same time, Chase bank also confirmed that Apple Pay-powered ATM withdrawals were coming to its locations.

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And while Bank of America introduced basic Apple Pay features at participating retailers back in 2014, random reports of the Apple Pay ATM functionality began popping up back in May of this year.

Whether this will help spur sales of iPhone and Apple Watch devices remains to be seen, but as Apple Pay continues to spread and competing systems like CurrentC falter, Apple may, over time, have a mobile payments hit on its hand. 

Samsung Pay will launch in Singapore “as early as Q2 2016”

Samsung has already said it will launch Samsung Pay in Singapore this year, but today it set a more definite timeline–sort of. The company announced that the service will be available in retail stores “as early as Q2 2016,” the day after rival Apple Pay rolled out in Singapore for the first time.

To be sure, Apple Pay is currently available only for American Express card holders in Singapore, while Samsung Pay has been available as a payment method for bus and train fares since the end of March. Singapore is an important market, however, because it represents the first step into Southeast Asia for both services.

Samsung Pay’s partnership with American Express, MasterCard, and Visa, and major banks in Singapore–DBS/POSB, OCBC Bank, and Standard Chartered–means it should work at most retail stores that already take credit cards once it finishes rolling out. Apple Pay, of course, also plans to partner with many of the same institutions.

In its announcement, Samsung said that based on its own research, 71 percent of Samsung user “have indicated interest in using Samsung Pay once it becomes available.”

Success is still far from certain, however, for Samsung Pay (or Apple Pay, for that matter). Gartner research director Manjunath Bhat told the Straits Time last month that only 23 percent of Singaporean consumers are currently willing to use mobile payments and that when they do tap their smartphones at checkouts, it is for small transactions.