LG has announced the launch of its LG Pay mobile payments service in Korea, allowing consumers with the LG G6 smartphone to make mobile payments using the service’s Wireless Magnetic Communication (WMC) technology. LG Pay will be available for cards issued by Shinhan Bank, KB Kookmin Card, BC Card and Lotte Card at launch and will be expanded to “all card companies in Korea by September,” LG says.
“Users of LG G6 already equipped with the LG Pay hardware can use LG Pay right through the sequential software update,” the company says. “LG Pay can register up to 10 credit cards and check cards that you use frequently.
“You can use any of these cards. Various membership cards such as mobile carriers and retail stores can be registered, paid, discounted and redeemed at once and can also be used as a transportation card. In addition to offline payment, LG Electronics plans to expand its LG Pay functions by offering various services such as online payment and banking services.”
A number of promotions are running alongside the launch of LG Pay — KB will give prizes to 5,000 people and 10,000 won (US$8.90) in cashback through lotteries for those who make a payment of more than 50,000 won (US$44.50) using LG Pay until the end of July, while Lotte Card is also offering incentives to customers throughout June.
Universal experience
LG Pay was officially unveiled in March this year. The WMC technology is being supplied by payment solution provider Dynamics and allows any portable device to generate wireless magnetic data pulses that can be transmitted over the air to traditional magnetic stripe readers. Any standard credit or debit card can be loaded into a device and used to make a payment at “virtually any point-of-sale terminal”.
“This allows consumers to use their phones in a more variety of places without having to change any of the merchant terminals or having to re-educate merchants,” Dynamics CEO Jeff Mullen told NFC World when the service was first unveiled. “It is a very clean and universal experience compared to the alternatives.”
Samsung Pay launched with Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology in South Korea in September 2015 and saw one million Koreans signing up to use the service in its first month.
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This is similar to the Technolgy used by Samsung Pay. It allows contactless payments with point of sale devices equipped only for magnetic stripe cards.
While most of the devices in my market are equipped for. NFC (thanks mostly to Apple Pay) , most in the world are not. However, I remember why the numbers on the card are raised.