The news: Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Card, its first credit card, ahead of its July 22, 2026 Unpacked event, per Samsung. Barclays US Consumer Bank issues the card on the Visa network.

Rewards include:

• 5% cash rewards on purchases made directly with Samsung
• 3% on purchases made through Samsung Wallet
• 2% on streaming services
• 1% on everything else

New cardholders can earn a $200 bonus after spending $2,000 in the first 90 days.

Why this matters: The card gives Samsung a new lever to pull in a mobile wallet market where it trails far behind.

• Apple Pay will have 71.6 million US proximity payment users in 2026 and Google Pay 42.6 million, compared with just 15 million for Samsung Pay, per our forecast.
• Samsung Pay's US user share will fall from 12% to 10.3% by 2030, as Apple Pay maintains its dominance at 57.4%.

Samsung is betting rewards can convert Android owners, the second-largest US smartphone group behind iOS, into Wallet loyalists.

For Barclays, the deal offers a rare win after a rough stretch in US co-brand cards.

• The bank lost American Airlines' sole co-brand slot to Citi after already losing the Choice Hotels co-brand to Wells Fargo and the Lufthansa card to Deutsche Bank.
• Barclays also lost out on a chance to own the Apple Card portfolio: JPMorgan Chase beat out the issuer to take over the $20 billion portfolio.

Implications for payment providers: The Samsung Galaxy Card has a tough road ahead.

The Apple Card already counts 12 million cardholders and benefits from default status on the dominant US mobile OS, plus competitive rewards multiples when you pay through Apple Pay.

Samsung exceeds Apple’s rewards rate, but it may not be enough to coax Android users away from general-purpose cards or competing wallets. The bigger opportunity centers on defending the Android base Samsung already has. Tying richer rewards to Samsung Wallet pushes users to open the app more often, supporting Samsung's broader push to embed IDs, keys, and passes into that wallet.