Samsung Pay arrives in Australia to try and eat Apple's lunch

More than eight months after Apple Pay launched in Australia, Samsung Pay has arrived and it's trying to make nice with the local banks.

The mobile payments service is now available on compatible Samsung smartphones including the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5, but only to customers who bank with Australian launch partners, American Express and Citibank. If you have an American Express-issued card or a Citibank Mastercard or Visa card, you can start using Samsung Pay immediately. 

That's one better than Apple Pay, however, which kicked off in November 2015 with only American Express but has since added Australian bank ANZ.

Samsung Pay will need more banks on board to beat Apple Pay and it hopes its policy of not retaining customer data and not charging fees will prove an appealing point of difference.

A number of Australian banks already have their own mobile payment options and therefore, according to reports, don't want to get on board with Apple Pay as they would have to give up a portion of interchange fees -- the fee paid by merchants to use a bank's infrastructure -- to the tech company. Apple declined to comment. 

Prasad Gokhale, vice president at Samsung Australia, told Mashable Australia Samsung did not plan to charge for Samsung Pay transactions. "We're here to compliment the banks," he said. "We don't charge any interconnect fees or 'clip,' as they call it, and we don't retain data."

"The core position of Samsung is, we want to get more and more Australians to join our ecosystem," he added. "I don't think the banks or any other people look at us as competitors."

He suggested the company would soon be able to share "an agreed map for launch" with other local banking partners.

While he couldn't share user numbers, Nick Alexander, vice president of American Express payment consulting group, told Mashable Australia the company's customers had embraced Apple Pay enthusiastically. 

He couldn't comment specifically on Samsung Pay or Apple Pay's policies regarding interchange fees, but said American Express's aim is to satisfy customers who are increasingly banking on mobile. 

"From a merchant's standpoint, we charge one [merchant service] fee ... it's consistent," he said. "The customer doesn't pay any more and we just want to make sure we put solutions between the two that meet their needs."

In the meantime, Samsung wants to make sure that one day soon, you can leave your wallet at home, Elle Kim, global vice president of Samsung Pay, told reporters at the launch event. The team is looking at integrating loyalty and gift cards with the platform, and eventually, to allow it to be used in transit.

Australia is the company's fifth launch location after Korea, the U.S., China and Spain. Singapore will also be launching on June 16, followed by the UK, Canada and Brazil.

Thanks to Australia's high level of technology adoption, Kim said she expected user numbers to be healthy. "Within the first six months of launching in the U.S. and Korea, we had 5 million customers with a $500 million spend," she added.

Ultimately, both services will have to face off against Android Pay, which Google said would launch in early 2016. Google has been contacted for an update.

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