As spotted by many tech outlets including Android Central and The Verge, LG has finally launched its own mobile payments solution, LG Pay, in the United States. This comes two years after the company initially began testing the service in its home market of Korea.
With LG Pay, you can use the same tap-and-pay maneuver you’re probably used to with other services like Google Pay and Apple Pay. But unlike both of those services which strictly use specially-marked NFC-equipped card readers, LG Pay allows you to tap and pay at any card reader. Much like Samsung Pay, even old readers that don’t have any smartphone-esque logos on them are compatible with LG Pay.
Within the app, LG also lets you store gift cards on top of traditional credit and debit cards. You can buy and send gift cards from within the app and even swap out cards with ones from different retailers. This helps if the person you sent a gift card to isn’t a fan of the store you selected.
Finally, LG Pay also lets you sent money to your friends via LG Pay Perks.
At launch, only the LG G8 ThinQ is supported. But according to LG, other smartphones in the company’s lineup will gain support in the future. That means past LG phones have the necessary hardware to replicate a magnetic credit card. It’s just a matter of when the necessary software gets added to the devices.
In addition, LG says it’s partnered with Visa and Mastercard to support their two respective credit/debit card formats at launch. As far as banks go, Chase, State Employees’ Credit Union in North Carolina, PNC Bank, Regions, US Bank, and Virginia Credit Union are all onboard. Maybe Wells Fargo will be added in the future. I certainly hope so.
You can download LG Pay from the Play Store here.
