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Samsung Pay is one of the two contactless payment options you have for the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. The other being Google Wallet. And wouldn’t you know it, setting up Samsung Pay on the Galaxy Watch 5 is a pretty painless task. It might take you a few minutes or more to get it all complete. But it certainly won’t be a challenging thing to do.
That being said, this guide is here to help walk you through the steps on getting Samsung Pay configured. Because let’s face it. Using contactless payments on your watch is way easier than whipping your card out or pulling your phone out of your pocket to use contactless payments that way.
Even if you’re new to contactless payments, it’s definitely worth giving them a go. You’ll be glad you did. Here’s how to get Samsung Pay up and running on that new Galaxy Watch 5 of yours.
How to set up Samsung Pay on the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
To get things started you’re going to want to make sure your watch is set up first. If you haven’t done that yet, you can find a guide to help you with that here.
Press and hold the back button on the Galaxy Watch 5
Doing this will launch Samsung Pay. This is similar to the press and hold function of the home key which can be customized to launch either Bixby or Google Assistant in addition to powering off the watch. The only difference is you can’t customize the press and hold of the back button.
Read through Samsung’s tutorial
Samsung will have a short tutorial for you here that informs you on everything Samsung Pay is capable of. This is a few pages long but also very brief. Swipe through these screens to continue. On the last page, tap the big blue arrow button to “start using Samsung Pay.”
Sign in with your Samsung account
After you tap to start using Samsung Pay, you’ll be prompted to continue on your phone. This will ask you to allow the WatchPlugin app to draw over other sources. Which is needed for Samsung Pay on the watch to work. You’ll then need to sign in to your Samsung Pay account.
Tap the Add A Card button
Next, go back to the app on your Galaxy Watch 5 and tap the Add A Card button to add a card to the app. This can be a payment card like your credit or debit card, or a loyalty card, rewards card, and more.
Set up a screen lock
You’ll now need to set up a screen lock for the watch display if you haven’t already done so. You can use a PIN or pattern here. Whichever is easiest for you. We recommend a pattern since this feels quicker than tapping a PIN number. But a PIN offers slightly higher security
Add a payment card from your phone
I know it seems a little weird to force this, but you’ll have to actually add the card from your phone as the watch will not allow it. Tapping add a card on the watch simply pushes the function of this task to the connected phone, where you finish off the process.
Let Samsung Pay scan your card
Next, you’ll be prompted to position your card inside the frame of the camera viewfinder. Alternatively, you can also add the information manually if you’d prefer. To do this, tap on the Add card manually option at the bottom of the screen.
Import card information
If you have cards saved in your Samsung account that you’re still using, you can tap on the import cards option within Samsung Pay from your phone. Do this instead of tapping on add a card if you don’t have any new cards to add. After you add or import your card information, let Samsung Pay do its thing to validate all the details.
Verify your information
Last but not least, you’ll need to verify your card information. Follow the on-screen prompts (you should still be doing all of this on your phone) to verify and you’re done. It is worth mentioning that verification is probably different from bank to bank. All I had to do for verification was verify by text with a simple code. But your bank may require a different verification method. Keep that in mind.