Samsung Money Goes Live in the U.S.

Samsung has officially launched its new money management service. Dubbed Samsung Money by SoFi, the mobile service is available to Samsung Pay users in the U.S., and will give subscribers access to a cash management app and a Debit Mastercard, amongst other benefits.

The Samsung Money platform is developed by SoFi, which is launching the app in collaboration with Mastercard and Samsung. Customers will find their digital debit card in their Samsung Pay wallet as soon as they activate and fund their Samsung Money account, and they will only need to tap their phone to activate their physical card once they receive it in the mail. The physical card will not display the user’s card number, expiration date, or CVC number in order to make it more difficult for fraudsters to get hold of that information. However, those details will be available to customers through the mobile app.

With the launch, Samsung confirmed previous reports and announced that there will not be any fees associated with the Samsung Money service. That means that there are no account fees, overdraft fees or transfer fees, nor is there any charge for using an ATM as long as that ATM is part of the Samsung Pay network.  

Samsung Money will leverage the Samsung Knox platform for security, while the FDIC has insured every single account up to $1.5 million. Users will also be notified about (and carry no liability for) any unauthorized transactions.

As an added perk, Samsung Money users will receive exclusive discounts on Samsung products, including Galaxy smartphones, wearables, and tablets in addition to larger appliances like TVs and refrigerators. Samsung will start rolling out those discounts in the next few weeks. Until then, users will receive Samsung Reward points whenever they use Samsung Pay to make a purchase.

The launch comes only a few short weeks after Samsung first announced that it was developing a new digital payment card. The service should help Samsung keep pace with Apple after the latter unveiled a branded credit card at the tail end of 2019.