Samsung Pay now supports USAA-issued Visa cards in the US

Samsung is constantly expanding the lineup of cards supported by its mobile payment system Samsung Pay, and USAA Bank is the latest card issuer to jump on the bandwagon.

The financial services company has introduced Samsung Pay for its VISA debit and credit card holders. It’s a logical step forward, says USAA mobile payments lead Kiyanna Garland, as the financial services firm already supports Apple Pay and Android Pay.

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For Samsung, the addition of USAA to its Samsung Pay-supported cards is a remarkable feat for a mobile payment platform that had an initially limited support from banking institutions, not to mention the recent security issues. Security researchers recently found an exploit in Samsung Pay that could allow hackers to steal credit card information. Samsung downplayed worries by saying the bad actors must first hurdle certain conditions before they could exploit the vulnerability.

The security concerns did not seem to dampen interest in Samsung Pay as the platform registered nearly 100 million transactions as of August 2016.

Garland cites a couple of factors that prompted USAA to launch Samsung Pay for its VISA credit and debit cards. One is the platform’s compatibility with almost all payment terminals and the ease with which merchants can facilitate payments through Samsung Pay. Another is member demand, suggesting that Samsung Pay is growing in popularity at least among USAA card holders.

It should be noted that Samsung is pushing the update to Samsung Pay on the server side, meaning USAA members must wait for the update to arrive on their devices.

Additionally, USAA also announced that it will add Android Pay support for its USAA Visa debit cards.