- Mastercard and Samsung will offer their services to the South Korean market, where the Samsung Pay Card is already highly popular.
- The new service will provide an online and actual credit card, and will offer customers a variety of discounts, including 1% off in-person payments.
- A senior figure at Mastercard said that the new service would provide customers with a high level of convenience – as well as security and safety due to the pandemic.
Global financial services firm Mastercard has announced that it will work alongside Samsung to offer a new card that facilitatescross-border payments in South Korea.
Customers are to be offered a 5% discount on cross-border transactions with a limit of KRW 100,000 per month.
Mastercard will work with both Samsung Electronics and Samsung Card to offer the Samsung Pay Card, an all-new credit card that has both online and in-person elements to it.
Users of the card will be able to receive a variety of cash discounts on various key transactions.
The functionality of the card, which was released at the very end of August, will also be enhanced compared to others on the market.
It is linked to the Samsung Pay app, which is one of South Korea’s most popular e-wallet services.
According to one report, it has almost 20 million people using it.
Since the card was launched, meanwhile, it has processed payments equivalent to almost US$70bn.
However, one of the main appeals of the new payment system for the end user is likely to be that it provides discounts on many different transactions.
If a customer uses the card to top up their Cashbee transport service account before the year is out, for example, they will receive a discount of 2%.
General in-person payments will see 1% knocked off.
Internet-based payments will get a discount of half a percentage point.
According to a senior figure at Mastercard, the relevance of the new card is high given the increasing levels of digitalisation in the country.
Dongchun Choi, who serves as the division president at Mastercard for Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan & Korea, said that the card would offer convenience for customers.
“As Korea’s economy grows ever more digital, Mastercard is helping to connect consumers to digital payment experiences that are quick and convenient,” he said.
He went on to ground the new development in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said that the firm was committed to offering “payment options offering the safety of touch-free transactions and the protection of world-class security”.
Customers who want to start using the new service can apply for the card using the Samsung Pay app.
If they are given the green light to start using it, the online version of the card will appear in the app.
The actual card, however, will be delivered to the user later.
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