Samsung Pay has only been around for a couple of months now but its adoption is rapidly growing in South Korea and the United States, this payments service has not yet been expanded to other markets, expansion to Europe and China is expected before the end of this year. Currently the service is good for making purchases via credit or debit cards as well as for using loyalty and store cards, Samsung has confirmed that support for gift cards is coming soon, but in the future the service may allow people to make payments from one smartphone to the other by simply using Samsung Pay.
A module will be required to enable this functionality that will allow people to exchange money between smartphones and pay with cards through the NFC chip installed in compatible smartphones. When the module is installed the handset can essentially be used as a mobile credit card payment terminal and it won't use the value-added network (VAN) because it will be directly linked to card companies. Not only will this reduce credit card fees but also the monthly rental, communication and maintenance fees that merchants usually have to pay for conventional card terminals.
The module has been developed by a U.S. startup Hankook NFC and it is in discussions with Samsung to bring this technology to Samsung Pay thus allowing people to transfer money between smartphones. Since the handset will be a mobile payment terminal with the module it will also enable small merchants and temporary businesses like kiosks to accept card payments because no private lines or card payment devices will be required and credit card companies will be able to directly authorize the payments. It is unclear if Samsung will decide to expand the features of Samsung Pay by leaning on this module but the possibility very much exists, and it certainly won't be too bad if it really does.
