Samsung Pay goes down for three hours, users scramble for physical cards

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Samsung Pay goes down for three hours, users scramble for physical cards

Published: 02 Jun. 2025, 14:42 Updated: 02 Jun. 2025, 20:44

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Samsung Pay, Samsung Electronics' mobile payment service compatible with Samsung Galaxy devices, experienced disruptions for roughly three hours on June 2. Pictured is Samsung Pay being used at a convenience store on May 21, 2023. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

A system error in Samsung Pay, Samsung Electronics' mobile payment service compatible with Galaxy devices, left users unable to complete transactions for more than three hours on Monday morning.

The outage began around 7 a.m., when users found themselves unable to make payments through the app.

Payments through Samsung Pay unavailable, users report

Samsung Pay’s customer support said all card payments were experiencing errors and that it wasn't an issue with individual devices, in a notice to users. The operator also said it was working to identify the cause and restore regular service as quickly as possible.

Samsung Electronics announced at 10:30 a.m. that the problem had been resolved, roughly three hours after the disruption began.

“The issue causing errors during card registration and payment attempts has been resolved. Users can now use the service as normal,” the company said, adding that the exact cause and timeline of the outage were still under investigation.

Users who had left their physical cards at home faced unexpected difficulties. Some were unable to pay at gas stations or settle medical bills. Others rebooted their phones, mistakenly believing it was a device malfunction, and resorted to bank transfers as a workaround.

Online communities and social media platforms quickly filled with complaints and reports of failed transactions.

One user wrote, “I went to a convenience store this morning and panicked when I couldn’t pay.”

Others said, “Samsung Pay isn’t working,” and “I had to transfer money to pay for coffee. Even the cashier looked confused.”

Another user commented, “I tapped my phone ten times trying to buy gimbap [seaweed rice rolls], but it didn’t work. I’ll carry a physical card from now on.”

This reporter also experienced the issue around 7:05 a.m. at a store in Sangil-dong, Gangdong District, eastern Seoul.

Samsung Pay faced a similar disruption on May 16 due to a network equipment issue, though that incident was resolved within about three minutes.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]