© Rido / Shutterstock.com

Key Points:
  • Chase Pay and Samsung Pay share one key thing in common: both are mobile payment services that allowed users to make purchases with their smart devices.
  • Samsung Pay can be used on a smartphone, a tablet, and even a Samsung smart watch.
  • Chase now allows cardholders to integrate their cards into various other mobile payment services. This includes PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and, yes, even Samsung Pay.

Mobile payment services have rolled out in full force over the past decade or so. While many skeptics were wary of entering their card information into their smartphones at first, the remarkable technology has since proved itself to be worthy of trust.

This raises a new concern, however: which mobile payment service is the best, and what are the differences between them all? Take Chase Pay and Samsung Pay, for instance. Based on their names, you’d think they were more or less interchangeable. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

So, which mobile payment service is superior, and what distinguishes the two? How do their specs compare?

Let’s make a full comparison between Chase Pay and Samsung Pay, making sure to compare and contrast their features in full detail. Once we’ve done that, we’ll be able to name an overall winner. Dive in with us!

Chase Pay vs. Samsung Pay: Full Comparison

Above all else, Chase Pay and Samsung Pay share one key thing in common: both are mobile payment services that allowed users to make purchases with their smart devices.

For Chase Pay, this was limited exclusively to smartphones. Samsung Pay, however, includes smartphones, smart watches, and tablets alike. However, only one of these two services is still around today—Chase Pay was discontinued and pulled from all previously supported devices in the spring of 2021.

Instead of Chase Pay, Chase now allows cardholders to integrate their cards into various other mobile payment services. This includes PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and, yes, even Samsung Pay. In other words, Chase Pay is no longer a thing.

Samsung Pay, on the other hand, is still alive and thriving. However, Chase Paymentech—the developer behind Chase’s former mobile payment service—is still hard at work developing mobile payment technologies for merchants. They’ve more or less switched from the customer side to the business side, focusing more on terminals and merchant services instead of mobile payment technology for consumers.

Another major difference between Samsung Pay and the now-defunct Chase Pay is the way the apps actually made payments. Samsung Pay relies on both near-field communications (NFCs) and magnetic secure transmissions (MSTs). Chase Pay, on the other hand, used QR codes. This is not common whatsoever and might be a major contributing factor to Chase Pay’s eventual shuttering.

Samsung Pay’s compatibility with both NFCs and MSTs makes it almost universally accessible. Chase Pay’s QR code method limited it tremendously.

Chase Pay vs. Samsung Pay: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Chase PaySamsung Pay
DeveloperChase PaymentechSamsung Electronics
Release DateMay 2013August 20th, 2015
Operating SystemN/AAndroid, Wear OS
Supported DevicesSmartphonesSmartphones, smart watches, tablets
Technology UsedQR CodeNFC, MST
Discontinued?YesNo

Mobile Payment Services: 5 Must-Know Facts

  • Chase Pay was discontinued in March of 2021, with Chase instead choosing to allow its cardholders to integrate with several other top mobile payment services, like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay.
  • Samsung Pay can be used on a smartphone, a tablet, and even a Samsung smart watch.
  • Samsung Pay’s use of both NFC payments and MST payments—which replicate the physical action of swiping a card—makes it accessible at over 90% of all payment terminals in the U.S.
  • While Chase is no longer in the mobile payment game on the consumer side of things, Chase Paymentech is still developing and releasing accessible payment terminals for merchants.
  • Between Chase Paymentech’s founding in 1985 and the release of Chase Pay in 2013, Chase Paymentech had facilitated nearly 30 billion transactions totaling over $655 billion.

The History of Chase Pay

Chase has been in the business of mobile payment services since the launch of its Chase Pay app—also known as Chase Mobile Checkout on the merchant’s side of things—in May of 2013.

A division of their Chase Paymentech business, Chase Mobile Checkout, allowed for Chase cardholders to make in-store payments in real-time via their smartphones. As long as a merchant had a card terminal that supported Chase Mobile Checkout, customers would be able to use Chase Pay to checkout the same as any competing mobile payment service.

Chase released these specific card terminals in June of 2012, almost a full year earlier. Chase Paymentech called these terminals “future-proof.” This means Chase designed the terminals so that they could continue to function to the best of their ability for years to come. As it turned out, this included support for mobile payments (which weren’t all that common at the time). In addition to accepting mobile payments, these terminals were also designed with the ability to reduce payment fraud and help to better handle pesky chargebacks.

Chase Paymentech has been at the forefront of the latest payment processing and merchant services since 1985. Since then, Paymentech has processed nearly 30 billion transactions totaling more than $655 billion in purchases. What’s more, Paymentech has added support for more than 130 currencies the world over. No matter the currency, no matter the payment method, Paymentech has made a name for itself through cutting-edge analytics, expert-level fraud detection, and state-of-the-art security measures. Chase Pay and Chase Mobile Checkout are just one part of this.

Chase pay app on smartphone
Chase Pay has since been discontinued, so it is unavailable for use.

©OpturaDesign/Shutterstock.com

Samsung Pay’s Evolution

Samsung Pay comes with a lot less support from a stories merchant services company (compared to, say, Chase Pay), but that doesn’t make it any less of a functional, innovative service.

First launched in 2015, a couple of years after Chase Pay first appeared, Samsung Pay allows cardholders of all varieties to check out with their smartphones and other Samsung devices. Samsung derived this technology from a startup called LoopPay, which they acquired earlier in 2015 for around $300 million.

What made LoopPay so appealing to Samsung—and, later, to Samsung customers also—is its support for both NFCs and MSTs. Typically, most mobile payment services only offer support for NFCs. That’s because MSTs require the use of magnetic fields to replicate the action of swiping a physical card with a magnetic strip—a much more complicated bit of tech compared to NFCs.

Because it can allow for both NFCs and MSTs, Samsung Pay claims to be compatible with more than 90% of all payment terminals in the United States. (Samsung Pay runs into trouble with chip readers, as there hasn’t been a way to replicate this via mobile pay just yet.)

Alas, as long as the terminal can accept either mobile pay or a swiped card, there’s no reason Samsung Pay wouldn’t be able to work with it. This goes for credit, debit, and even loyalty cards and gift cards.

Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay is only available for Samsung phones, but it is widely accepted in most businesses.

©TY Lim/Shutterstock.com

Pros and Cons of Chase Pay and Samsung Pay

Pros of Chase PayCons of Chase PayPros of Samsung PayCons of Samsung Pay
Backed by Chase Paymentech, a decades-old businessWas shuttered in 2021 after releasing in 2013Works on smartphones, smart watches, and tabletsSamsung Pay only works on Samsung devices
Worked at gas stations and drive-thrus, where some NFCs could not workUtilized QR codes to make paymentsNo internet connection is required to workSamsung Pay is not supported by all financial institutions yet
One of the earliest instances of a mobile payment serviceNot equipped with tap-to-pay NFC technologyEquipped with both NFC and MST technology, making it work at 90% of all U.S. payment terminalsIf your smart device dies, you won’t be able to make a payment
Since shuttering Chase Pay, Chase has become more accessible by integrating with other top mobile payment servicesChase Pay required an internet connection to workStill in operation today (as opposed to Chase Pay, which shut down in 2021)Not supported on iOS or desktop computers, seriously limiting the number of people who can use the service

Chase Pay vs. Samsung Pay: Which is the Better Mobile Payment Service?

Looking at both Chase Pay and Samsung Pay, it’s clear to see that Samsung Pay deserves to be deemed the superior mobile payment service simply because it still exists today. Chase Pay has been gone since 2021 and, in the time since, Chase has made no indication that a new mobile payment service is on the way. They’re perfectly happy leaving things as they are, with much of their focus going into developing payment terminals and allowing Chase cardholders to integrate with other mobile payment services instead.

However, Samsung Pay would still be the winner even if Chase Pay was still around. Considering Chase Pay’s buggy QR code scanning coupled with its lack of support for tablets and smart watches, Samsung Pay simply works better and is far more accessible than Chase Pay ever was. Plus, Samsung Pay is contained within Samsung Wallet, which adds even more support for other forms of payment, such as cryptocurrency.

There’s no question that Samsung Pay stands out from the competition, and that’s what makes it the best!

Up Next…

Chase Pay vs. Samsung Pay: What’s the Difference? FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) 

Is Chase Pay still around?

Chase Pay was discontinued in 2021, with Chase choosing instead to integrate its cards into other mobile payment services.

What's the difference between Samsung Pay and Samsung Wallet?

Samsung Pay is included within the Samsung Wallet, which also makes room for cryptocurrency, forms of ID, tickets, and more.

What is Chase Paymentech?

Chase Paymentech is a payment processing business and subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase. They’ve been creating and developing innovative new payment processors since the mid-1980s, which at one point included Chase Pay.

What devices are supported by Samsung Pay?

Samsung Pay works on smart phones, smart watches, and tablets, but only if they’re Samsung devices.

How does Samsung Pay work?

Samsung Pay uses NFC technology to facilitate tap-to-pay and MST technology to replicate the swiping of magnetic strips.

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  • Tech Crunch Available here: https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/27/the-problem-with-chase-pay-the-banks-forthcoming-apple-pay-competitor/
  • Yahoo! Finance Available here: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-jpm-decides-discontinue-chase-164604726.html
  • Chase Available here: https://www.chase.com/digital/digital-payments
  • Samsung Pay Available here: https://www.samsung.com/us/samsung-pay/
  • Samsung Wallet Available here: https://www.samsung.com/us/samsung-wallet/