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Better late than never: Samsung Pay launches in the UK

Apple Pay and Android Pay have a new rival.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
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Katie Collins
Samsung Pay lets you add loyalty cards to your mobile wallet.

Samsung Pay lets you add loyalty cards to your mobile wallet.

 Jason Cipriani/CNET

Samsung Pay finally launched in the UK on Tuesday, just shy of two years after it was first announced.

The mobile-payments platform is Samsung's rival to Android Pay and Apple Pay and lets Samsung phone owners use their device at contactless payment terminals instead of a debit or credit card.

The UK is the 18th country globally to get Samsung Pay. The arrival of the payments platform comes just after the release of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ last month. Samsung Pay is available from today on both phones, along with S7s and S6s in their many shapes and sizes.

Customers with a Galaxy S8 will be able to take advantage of the phones' iris scanner to authorise payments.

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