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Samsung, pushing humanity forward. This debit card will change the way we spend and make us more aware of our spending habits. Amazed.
 
Compared to the Apple Card, which is real credit card (Mastercard) - I am surprised that Google and Samsung didn't try to beat out Apple by coming out with a premium card like a co-branded Amex Platinum Google or Samsung.

At least my Apple Card (physical), digital Apple Card (digital wallet), & cash back Apple Pay card contributes to my credit score!
 
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Compared to the Apple Card, which is real credit card (Mastercard) - I am surprised that Google and Samsung didn't try to beat out Apple by coming out with a premium card like a co-branded Amex Platinum Google or Samsung.

At least my Apple Card (physical), digital Apple Card (digital wallet), & cash back Apple Pay card contributes to my credit score!
I think it makes more sense when you look at the Android market. The reason Android sells so many more units but iOS seems to take in all the profits is because Android serves a lot of countries and people that don’t regularly use credit cards.

These forums tend to focus a lot on the premium high end stuff, but the Android market is a lot bigger than that.
 
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Not a fan of Samsung but am a BIG fan of society moving away from cash. The more we can move away from printed money, the better.
No thanks. Cash works just fine for most transactions. Nobody needs electricity for it to work, nobody needs to skim a few percent to process the transaction, nobody needs to profile me, and nobody needs to treat my chewing gum purchase as the start of a lifelong relationship.
 
I’m in the US and I never use cash. I want to move away from plastic cards and just have nothing but my phone.

Honestly, the only thing keeping me from achieving this is the need to carry a driver's license. I would obviously never want to let a cop take my phone so he could run my license, but there has to be a better way
 
If it’s a debit card, does this mean I need to transfer money into a holding account first before I can make purchases from it? So it’s like a virtual wallet of sorts?

It's not a completely insane idea, and there's logic to Samsung introducing it.
As you get further from the US culturally (through the Anglosphere, then "the West", then the rest of the world, credit cards are ever less common. Banks are reluctant to extend credit to strangers (most bank credit is for businesses, most other credit is at local stores, between customer and merchant who know each other). Electronic payment networks exist, the issue is specifically a reluctance to extend credit, and a reluctance of customers to use credit beyond particular roles.
(And yeah, of course there have been kludge-like variants of this in place around the world for YEARS, eg people in Africa paying by transferring minutes between phones. The issue is making things easier and more uniform.)

So if you see the point of a phone/watch as being to make PAYMENT easier, not to make CREDIT easier, going with a debit card opens you up to a lot more of the world. And yes, it is just a virtual wallet holding your virtual dollars. So what? That's what most people want. It's certainly how *I* use my credit card, as a payment card that I pay off religiously every month.

Even in the US there's a whole parallel economy (that people like me, and maybe you the reader, are barely aware of) that operates via payment card mechanisms not credit card mechanisms. This is the world of companies like Green Dot, of people without bank accounts, of certain classes that the US government has decided should not be allowed to be oart of the traditional banking world. You're probably thinking criminals and drug dealers and, yeah, they're part of it. But also, for example, sex workers of every sort, from strippers to escorts to the porn industry, who find it practically impossible (because of deliberate federal government regulation) to engage in standard banking and credit cards.

As for innovation, there are obvious things that could be done, like having the card/wallet hold multiple currencies and you choose which one to use. The obvious use case then is dollars and bitcoins, which starts to make bitcoin transactions a lot less frictional, whether or not you want that sort of thing to happen.
I don't know that SS per se will be that innovative, but there are enough people in Silicon Valley trying to push this model (eg Facebook) that I expect mechanisms (eg API or plugins) to allow it to happen will occur soon enough.
And yeah, one reason there are so many in Silicon Valley pushing this is precisely because of anger at how the federal government overstepped on the whole sex worker thing, jumping happily from "terrorist" to "child pornography" to "drugs" to "sex".

So don't look at this as a "Samsung copies Apple" story. Look at it as
(a) Samsung brings payment via your phone to everyone.
(b) Only round three, maybe, in a very long war between traditional banking, the tech companies, and governments, as to who gets to control the payment networks, to skim something off every transaction, and to decide what can and cannot take place via normal economic mechanisms.
 
Just a debit card? So I would need to transfer money from my bank account that already has a debit card that’s probably supported by Samsung Pay (it’s in my Apple Wallet) to the Samsung debit card to use it? Seems entirely superfluous. More Apple Cash than Apple Card, but without the features that make Apple Cash worthwhile.
 
I understand why Apple and Samsung are playing this game, but I don't understand what is in it for consumers.
1. I have a debit card via my credit union. I never use it.
2. I have a Visa card ($0/yr) from my credit union. I never use it.
3. I have a Visa card (costs me $95/yr) that rewards me with Avios which are useful/worthwhile for international travel.
4. I have a MasterCard ($0/yr) which I have in case the Visa system is not working. I seldom use it.
5. Venmo works for "cash" transactions.
 
Honestly, the only thing keeping me from achieving this is the need to carry a driver's license. I would obviously never want to let a cop take my phone so he could run my license, but there has to be a better way
Arizona has a web app, Louisiana & Delaware has full blown apps. The cop just scans the barcode with their device (in NYC, its also an iPhone, in a lot of jurisdictions its an android device or gasp, Windows mobile)
 
the innovation part will use machine learning to block those purchases that you shouldn't be making. do you really need a beer brewing kit? that's right - denied!
 
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Samsung Financial Co?. Doesn’t roll off the tongue.
To be honest.... Samsung plays a part in almost every industry in Korea. The Samsung Group already operates an insurance company for decades. They also run a theme park and a zoo. Thy design military robots for the South Korean Army. They also make washing machines, TVs, hair dryers, toaster ovens, and ironing boards. So why not a bank, financial services?
 
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the innovation part will use machine learning to block those purchases that you shouldn't be making. do you really need a beer brewing kit? that's right - denied!
Thankfully credit card systems aren't set up to get any transactional level data. So what you're asking for is impossible, unless you want to block out say, Home Depot or Michaels.
 
To be honest.... Samsung plays a part in almost every industry in Korea. The Samsung Group already operates an insurance company for decades. They also run a theme park and a zoo. Thy design military robots for the South Korean Army. They also make washing machines, TVs, hair dryers, toaster ovens, and ironing boards. So why not a bank, financial services?
Yep, they are a big conglomerate in Korea.

Here in the US, I can't see using them. I'm a JP Morgan, Citibank type of person.
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As a start make it contactless unlike the Apple card and bring back mask friendly iris scanning authentication.
Does it work with dark polarized sunglasses, masks and gloves?
 
It’s an interesting concept. The same with the rumoured google debit card. I’d be interested to find out the details. Also if and when it ever comes to the U.K. and if my bank supports it are also points for consideration
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Not a fan of Samsung but am a BIG fan of society moving away from cash. The more we can move away from printed money, the better.
Amen. We need to go contactless. Cash needs to be phased out as much as possible
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The #MeToo movement lives on in the Technology sector.
Of course Apple has never had a me too moment.
 
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I’m in the US and I never use cash. I want to move away from plastic cards and just have nothing but my phone.
The only thing that sucks is battery limitations. If you think about it, a lack of true innovation in battery tech is one of the biggest things holding modern technology back from making huge leaps forward.
 
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