Samsung first touted a 2016 launch for its payment service at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. It then reiterated that desire at the unveiling of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 in August. The company already allows customers in the USA, Canada, Korea, Spain, China, Australia, Singapore, Puerto Rico and Brazil to use Samsung Pay.

While Samsung Pay, like Apple and Google's mobile services, supports NFC for contactless payments, it does have one advantage over its rivals. It supports Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST), a technology that emits a signal that can mimic the magnetic strip on the back of a debit or credit card. That means Samsung Pay can be used on terminals that don't already allow contactless payments.