Samsung Pay (digital wallet)

I got a new phone a few days ago, couldn't sleep the night before last, & I saw android pay, watched a couple youtube videos, & it looked like Samsung Pay worked the best.

I installed it the next morning & tried it at 3 stores. Target and the grocery store both had modern card readers at the self checkout stations & it worked well there, then I stopped at a small burger joint for their Golden Burger (pastrami burger on Texas toast). The small burger joint had an old-style terminal like you've seen over the last 15 years & the clerk said "I don't think it'll work". I just held my phone by the card slot & it went through like magic! Next place to try it will be at the gas station.

So it works with the chip reader machines & old magnetic stripe. 3 tries yesterday, 0 fails.

Why use it???? I'm not sure.... Other than being new, I guess I just had to have a card replaced because the chip failed, magnetic strips wear out, and it's supposed to use the same upgraded security that the chips use (doesn't tx a static numeric stream like the magnetic cards do, it generates single use tokens (or something) for each transaction.

Hmmmm, I may have to give this a try, as my wallet seems to destroy magnetic strips on cards. Thanks for the review.
Tim

I'm an Apple nerd, but love using the mobile payments (Apple Pay, in my case). Hold my watch up to the card reader and off it goes in less than a second. As you said, Clint, each transaction has a unique 'token' of some kind and that is all that is given to the merchant. They never have your card number and in this day and age, I like that extra security. It also came in handy a few months back when I went off grocery shopping without my wallet.

Haven't been to any gas stations that use the tech yet. But I use Exxon/Mobile's Speedpass app, which utilizes Apple Pay (and I imagine Samsung and Android Pay as well).

The difference between Samsung Pay and Apple Pay is Samsung uses a rolling "Token" given to reader that the merchant has. So it is nearly untraceable back to the buyer. So it makes hacking the reader very difficult to tie back to customers names and account numbers. Apple uses a different approach with software algorithms that change/hide the account number, but it is embedded in the algorithm. Still very difficult to hack for the entry level hacker.

Both of these technologies are still safer than handing your CC to a merchant though. But with that said, they said power grids, nuclear power plants, and the NY stock market were unhackable, we all know that isn't true.

Read this toady: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/countries-gone-mostly-cashless-195953605.html.

Most Govt's want a cashless society to maintain control over people's spending and knowing the source of every dollar as well as their every transaction.

Unfortunately, 1 EMP event will wipe out EVERYONE's wealth....and debt. Placing all your eggs in one basket always proves to be a FOOL's Mission...think Equifax.

Bill Elwell said:

Read this toady: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/countries-gone-mostly-cashless-195953605.html.

Most Govt's want a cashless society to maintain control over people's spending and knowing the source of every dollar as well as their every transaction.

Unfortunately, 1 EMP event will wipe out EVERYONE's wealth....and debt. Placing all your eggs in one basket always proves to be a FOOL's Mission...think Equifax.

Click to expand...

My cards get hit with fraudulent charges a couple times per year - this last time (a few weeks ago) there were 2 ~$485 charges @ truck stops near LA, I figured it was people fleeing from the floods - not sure how they got that card info. Online stores like Amazon / Ebay/paypal / etc are still probably vulnerable to hacks. Samsung pay is supposed to work online the same way, I'll try to pay attention to see if/how that works.

As for big bro watching us, our privacy is unfortunately long gone. Remember when people were afraid that big bro could see the books you checked out from the library or the movies you rented from Blockbuster? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Clint said:

My cards get hit with fraudulent charges a couple times per year - this last time (a few weeks ago) there were 2 ~$485 charges @ truck stops near LA, I figured it was people fleeing from the floods - not sure how they got that card info. Online stores like Amazon / Ebay/paypal / etc are still probably vulnerable to hacks. Samsung pay is supposed to work online the same way, I'll try to pay attention to see if/how that works.

As for big bro watching us, our privacy is unfortunately long gone. Remember when people were afraid that big bro could see the books you checked out from the library or the movies you rented from Blockbuster? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Click to expand...

AMEN! Did you see the article the other day where the new GOOGLE (spy) was recording all the conversations in the house? Apparently, the owner "found" the audio on-line.