Banking21.01.2025

Say goodbye to bank cards

Many affordable smartphones and smartwatches in South Africa support contactless payments through digital wallet apps, allowing users to leave their bank cards at home or, potentially, ditch them altogether.

In the past few years, all the country’s major banks have come to support digital wallet apps, allowing customers to link their bank card details to a smartphone or smartwatch.

They can then tap to pay with these devices at regular payment machines like they would with a card.

At least four of South Africa’s biggest banks have seen transaction volumes and values skyrocket through digital wallets in recent years.

While contactless payments already enhance payment security by reducing the risk of cards being cloned, digital wallets help address some of the concerns South Africans have about the security of contactless payments.

Whereas a fast-moving criminal could use a stolen bank card to make tap payments up to a certain amount without a PIN before it is blocked, a digital wallet requires that the user authenticate themselves.

Every time a payment is made — or at least after a period of inactivity on the device — the user must enter their phone’s PIN or password, or supply authenticated biometrics, such as a facial or fingerprint scan.

In addition, digital wallet apps support adding virtual cards. Without loading these cards in a digital wallet app, they can only be used for online payments.

Digital wallets can also store travel tickets and loyalty card details, further reducing the need to carry around lots of physical documents.

Three digital wallet apps support tap-to-pay in South Africa: Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, and Samsung Wallet.

These apps have also been called Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay — names that are sometimes still used when referring to their contactless payment feature.

MyBroadband searched for the most affordable NFC-capable smartphones that support the three digital wallets in South Africa for people who want to rely less on their bank cards for payments.

The component that enables contactless payments in smart devices and bank cards is called a near-field communications (NFC) chip.

NFC is a set of communication protocols that supports secure two-way wireless communications between two electronic devices at up to four centimetres.

Apple Wallet is available exclusively on iPhones, iPads, Apple smartwatches, and other Apple devices.

As of January 2025, the oldest and most affordable iPhone with NFC on sale in South Africa was the iPhone 11 64GB, priced from around R10,000 on Amazon.co.za.

Those willing to buy a used iPhone could get away with paying around R5,000 to R8,000 for the same model or an iPhone SE.

Samsung Wallet is available on numerous Galaxy smartphones launched since 2015, including budget and mid-range Galaxy A models.

It is also supported on all Galaxy smartwatches, including recent Wear OS-based models that support Google Wallet.

The most affordable Samsung smartphone readily available in the South African market with support for its digital wallet was the Samsung Galaxy A15, priced from R2,999.

Google Wallet is supported on many more devices than Apple Wallet or Samsung Wallet, including Samsung’s own phones.

Aside from an NFC chip, it only requires that a handset run Android 9 or later.

That makes it compatible with devices from Honor, Mobicel, Oppo, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi, to name just a few Android manufacturers.

For smartwatches, the app is supported on devices running Google’s Wear OS 2.18 or later.

We found numerous Google Wallet-supporting smartphones priced under R2,000 in South Africa, the most affordable of which was the Mara X1.

People who cannot afford NFC-capable devices can still use their smartphones to make payments at many physical terminals by using scan-to-pay, which only requires a basic rear camera.

Most major banks have a feature in their dedicated apps for this payment option. Popular third-party options like SnapScan and Zapper, which tend to be used by smaller merchants, are also available.

Below are the most affordable smartphones in South Africa that support Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, and Samsung Wallet in January 2025.

Google Wallet: Mara X1 — From R1,299 (Takealot)

Samsung Wallet: Samsung Galaxy A15 — From R2,999 (The Cell Shop)

Apple Wallet: Apple iPhone 11 — From R9,999 (Amazon.co.za)

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