LG Pay Might Launch In The US By June, Will Work With G7 & V40

A new report claims that LG Pay, LG’s own payments service, will soon become available outside of South Korea. More specifically, LG Pay is said to arrive in the United States by June.

The launch of LG Pay in the U.S. was first reported by Yonhap News. The site claimed that LG was considering to launch its mobile payments service in the country as LG Wallet. The company is said to be planning to launch the service in the U.S. during the first half of 2018 to coincide with the release of its next flagship Android smartphone.

For the unfamiliar, LG Pay is very much like Samsung Pay. It uses NFC technology and a form of magnetic component to communicate with compatible terminals. While Samsung uses Magnetic Secure Transmission technology, LG uses Wireless Magnetic Communication. The NFC component is used for more modern payment terminals, while the magnetic part is used for older cash registers, according to Phone Arena. LG Pay was fist launched in South Korea in June of last year.

The report may be accurate on the LG Wallet name. LG has already released an app with that very same name on the Google Play Store. The app didn’t actually even work and was quickly removed by LG. What’s most interesting about the app is that it’s description said that it will only work on the LG G7, which hasn’t even been announced yet.

Yonhap News’ report did say that LG Pay in the U.S. will work for the G7 and the V40, the expected successor to last year’s LG V30. The site also said that LG plans to further expand the availability of LG Pay to its mid-range smartphones in the U.S. for 2019. In Korea, the company plans to expand LG Pay to its K10 models as well as other mid-range handsets later this year.

LG appears to be trying to catch up with Samsung Pay, which is already available in 18 countries, including the U.S., China, Australia, Britain, Spain and Switzerland. Samsung is LG’s biggest competition in South Korea, even more so than Apple or Google. That said, the company will still be fighting an uphill battle considering that the mobile payments space is already a bit crowded with Apple Pay and the recently reformed Google Pay.

Right now, fans are waiting on the the new LG G7 flagship, which might make an appearance next month at MWC 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. However, recent reports claim that the G7 might actually launch in March and could be released in April. If the LG G7 isn’t launching at MWC, perhaps LG might give out more information on the expanded availability of LG Pay.