by Everyone knows about Sberbank and the fact that over the past few years it has turned from a heavy and clumsy bureaucratic machine into a fintech corporation. One of the projects of the updated state bank was the SberPay payment service, apparently designed to compete with Google Pay and Samsung Pay. I’m not talking about Apple Pay intentionally, since the new Sberbank product is only compatible with Android by default, and on iOS, like all other services, the track is ordered. However, this did not prevent me from using SberPay and making my own impression of it.
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I connected SberPay on the first day after launch. On how to do this, we have detailed instructions that will help you do everything right. I would like to point out in parentheses, however, that Sberbank’s payment service works, firstly, only with its own cards, and, secondly, so far it only supports the Visa payment system, so do not be surprised if your “plastic” cannot be linked.
How to enable SberPay on Android
For SberPay to work, you must switch the payment service in the smartphone settings
No additional application installation is required for SberPay to work. All manipulations to link a card to a payment service are carried out in the application. If your card is suitable, you will see the “Add to SberPay” button in the list of available actions. All that remains is to switch the payment service in the smartphone settings and you can use it. In this sense, everything is very, very similar to Google Pay, however, there are some differences in the method of triggering SberPay, and you, like me, will notice them at the first payment.
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Unlike Google Pay, SberPay requires fingerprint confirmation of payment. Not unlocking the smartphone, but confirming by displaying the corresponding verification window. Therefore, the first few times I had a gag, because I was used to just wake up my smartphone and put it to the terminal, as required by Google Pay. It was inconvenient, but after 2-3 transactions I got used to keeping my finger next to the scanner in order to have time to scan it when the device recognizes the terminal and asks for confirmation of the payment.
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In my opinion, this verification mechanism is very convenient. It makes SberPay similar to Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, which also require payment confirmation using biometrics. This allows you to secure payments, because, firstly, even a transaction with a minimum amount cannot be carried out without verification, and, secondly, people around you will not be able to see your desktop, as is the case with Google Pay, but simply a payment confirmation window with service logo. I like this implementation more.
Why SberPay is better than Google Pay
SberPay is a very convenient service, but I won’t be able to use it
In the two weeks that I have been using SberPay, I have not experienced any inconvenience. On the contrary, I got the impression that the payment is even faster. In any case, when paying for travel in public transport (in Saransk, a conductor walks on buses and trolleybuses with a terminal), transactions took place with a lower delay than when paying with Google Pay. Perhaps it seemed to me, but when I pay for a ride using Google Pay, about 1 in 10 – apparently due to shaking – some kind of failure occurs and the payment does not go through. This was not the case with the Sberovsk service.
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However, after two weeks of the experiment, I returned to Google Pay. Yes, it is not that convenient, and sometimes it may require an Internet connection to renew tokens, but it supports many more bank cards. And for me it became the determining factor. After all, I was not ready to pay for all purchases with a savings card, given the inconvenient cashback with “candy wrappers” and the lack of interest on the balance on my card, in contrast to one yellow bank with an eccentric founder.
