Tag: mobile payments spain

Samsung Pay rolls out in Spain

The mobile payments service has just stepped into the Spanish marketplace through CaixaBank.

Consumers in Spain now have a new opportunity to use mobile payments, as Samsung Pay has rolled out its service in the country, following a deal that has brought it its first support from financial services in the country in the form of ImaginBank, a subsidiary of CaixaBank.

This will make it possible for customers with certain models from the brand to pay using their smartphones.

As of yet, mobile payments have not been tremendously successful in the country. Some banks have already attempted to offer their support to Apple Pay, but when it actually came to enabling the service with their cards and point of service readers, they have appeared to be less motivated. Yet, Samsung Pay has managed to obtain the support of CaixaBank and it has become immediately effective.

A press release has confirmed the partnership between the bank and Samsung Pay for Spanish consumers.

Samsung Pay - Flag of SpainThe bank released the PR in order to reveal that it has become the “key partner” with Samsung in its mobile payments in terms of its “promotional campaign strategy.” In this strategy, there will be 700,000 consumers across the country who will have immediate access to this m-payments service.

The bank has expressed a considerable amount of enthusiasm, which is being seen as a nod to the potential that comes along with mobile payments platforms such as that with which it has just connected itself. When taking into consideration that the bank already owns its own mobile payments service called CaixaBank Pay, which launched last September, it is quite notable that it is as involved as it is in this second option, as well.

The bank stated that supporting Samsung Pay is a demonstration of its dedication to “developing its payment method innovation strategy with the aim of incorporating the latest global trends in its offer.” This is also being seen as a positive move for Samsung’s mobile wallet, which has been working hard to try to keep up in the race against its top rival, Apple Pay. The Apple wallet has also been spreading into new markets worldwide. It’s expected that the service will also be seen in the U.K and China, before long.

Mobile payments from iZettle are moving into another European country

mobile payments izettleThe latest addition to the company’s availability is in Spain, raising its number of E.U. countries to seven.

The increasingly popular mobile payments startup from Sweden, iZettle, has just announced that it is taking its first steps into Spain, which has boosted its availability in the European Union to include seven different countries.

The service provides small businesses with a way to receive credit card transactions over smartphones.

The company is already offering mobile payments options to small businesses in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Germany. It has also brought Visa transactions to Finland, Norway, and Denmark as of November 2012. They were able to accomplish this goal following the settlement of an issue between the two companies that had been outstanding.

The mobile payments will be expanding to Spain with an eye on small and struggling businesses.

The expansion into Spain is meant to provide small business owners who “are hurting” with new mobile payments options, said an mcommerce news release by the company. At the moment, there is no subscription fee for the company’s services and there is no minimum monthly fee. Instead, it charges a flat 2.75 percent per transaction.

The service works for either Android or iOS devices, and the mobile payments are compatible with all of the major credit cards including Amex, Visa, and MasterCard. This places iZettle in direct competition with a number of other companies that are offering comparable services within the European small business marketplace.

For example, there is a German startup called Payleven that is providing mobile payments services for Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Another example is Elavon, which is also headquartered in Europe and has just recently expanded into Ireland as of October, after being active exclusively in the United Kingdom until then.

Among the most recent mobile payments companies to make its way into the European marketplace is a company from Holland called Adyen. It is similar to iZettle in that it functions on both iOS and Android, but it is designed for large retailers so that they can make a point of sale in any location that there is an employee, in order to reduce lineups at the checkout counters.