Chase Pay officially launches in a crowded field of mobile payment apps

There’s Android Pay, Samsung Pay and even Walmart Pay for Android users to choose from for their mobile payment needs. Now the U.S. bank Chase is entering this already crowded field with its own Chase Pay app and system.

In a press release, Chase says that the app is currently only supported in Starbucks and Best Buy retail locations in the US. People who own a Chase credit, debit or “Liquid” card can store it in the app and use old fashioned QR codes to pay for items at those two retailers, with Touch ID support coming in a future update.  Chase Pay will expand to other retailers in the future, including ironically Walmart, along select Shell gas stations soon, along with Phillips 66, Conoco, 76, ShopRite, and The Fresh Grocer. The Chase Pay app can also be used to check account balances and available credit and view transactions from the last 90 days.

The launch of Chase Pay at this time, and with so few retailers supporting it, is a bit odd as both Android Pay and Samsung Pay are already well established in the US, and both are adding more and more new banks and services all the time. It would seem that Chase was extremely slow to get its own mobile payment service out of the gate, and it will be a struggle for it to compete with all the other ones that are already serving millions of customers a day.