Standard Bank announces Samsung Pay integration and new ‘virtual cards’

It’s been a mad week for new payments solutions. We’ve seen Absa roll out a Samsung Pay beta, and FNB launch Fitbit and Garmin Pay, and now Standard Bank has joined the party by announcing new virtual cards to make it easier for anyone to shop online, even if they don’t have a credit card. The bank has also announced that, like Absa, it’ll soon be supporting Samsung Pay.

“At the moment, very few South Africans shop online and those that do, tend to use a credit card or only pay cash-on-delivery. Trust, security and control are some of the reasons for this trend,” says Standard Bank’s head of emerging payments, Wendy Pienaar. “However, a safe, secure virtual card completely changes the conversation. It allows customers to shop online irrespective of the type of card or account they have.”

The virtual card system is accessible through the Standard Bank mobile app. It is quick and painless to set up, can be topped up at any time and used at any stage, whether at a pay-point or for an online purchase. Pienaar says the new virtual cards put customers “in the driver’s seat” as they can choose to only load the amounts they actually want to use for a specific transaction.

To get started, all you need is a Standard Bank card (or a co-branded card that’s linked with with one of their e-commerce partners like Takealot.com, Zando, Travelstart and Admyt). Digital payments can be made on all local e-commerce websites, with international purchase integration expected to roll out soon.

When it launches next month, Samsung Pay will allow Samsung phone users and Standard Bank (or Absa) customers to pay with their smartphones at any pay-point where the MasterCard or Visa tap-to-pay systems are available. The service only works with certain Samsung devices for now, including the Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 (the 2017 models), the A8, Note 8, S7, S7 Edge, S8, S8+, S9, S9+ and no doubt with the upcoming Note 9.

Your move Nedbank and Capitec. Your move.