Samsung Pay had something that not all newer mobile wallet apps like Apple Pay and Google Pay had. I am talking about using Samsung Pay on old magnetic-stripe card readers. The feature has been around for more than four years with Samsung Pay and has been a selling point for the app but not for long. Samsung’s rival LG has launched its own LG Pay that supports similar magnetic-stripe card reader payments via their credit card after two years of rigorous testing.
Introduced in the United States, LG Pay is still limited to LG G8 ThinQ which wasn’t a competitive smartphone to start with though. Anyways, LG has stated that LG Pay will resonate on other LG devices soon so we should trust it at the moment.
Mobile wallet apps like Google Pay from Google and Apple Pay from Apple use newer payment terminals (POS) that use near-field communication (NFC) for touchless payments, however, they don’t support the old magnetic stripe card readers that are still in use across the country. However, LG Pay similar to Samsung Pay uses the phone to generate a magnetic signal on the terminal that acts as it the user has swiped his/her credit card into the terminal and thereby facilitates the payment without swiping the card once.
LG Pay is far away when it comes to its competitors such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay among others. It has been testing out the feature ever since it was first launched in South Korean in June 2017, however, it is just now that it has reached G8 ThinQ users. LG has roped in many banking partners to support the app include Chase, Regions Bank, Virginia Credit Union, US Bank, PNC Bank, State Employees’ Credit Union in North Carolina among others.
The app will support both Mastercard and Visa credit card from the banks mentioned above, however, it won’t allow withdrawing cast from the ATMs. It won’t allow payments in terminals that require slide-your-card-in-all-the-way as quoted by a report on The Verge.
LG G8 ThinQ may not be the correct choice to release a feature as such, however, LG did mention that it will launch the app for LG V50 5G, LG V40, LG V35, and LG G7 shortly.
