Samsung Co. Ltd’s launch of the Galaxy S6 Sunday shipped with one feature that is a killer in the mobile payments spaces and leaves Apple Inc. for dead, and that’s a service Samsung has simply called Pay.

Based on technology from LoopPay, a startup Samsung acquired February 18th, Pay has two killer features that Apple doesn’t provide: it offers both near field communications (NFC) and support for magnetic stripe cards, meaning it will work with legacy point of sales (POS) terminals as well as new ones, and you don’t have to use a third party to make the transaction (ala Apple Pay,) instead the phone stores details of your existing cards and you use them via the phone to make payment.

The importance of supporting legacy POS terminals in 2015 can’t be understated; while much of Western Europe and countries such as Australia nearly universally support NFC payments at the POS (including services such as Tap and Pay,) the United States drastically lags behind. NFC is a great technology, but it may be years until in becomes ubiquitous in the United States, and this is where Samsung’s Pay steps in where Apple Pay and Google Wallet can’t.

The technology built into the S6 works by way of creating a magnetic field that replicates the data on the magnetic strip of standard cards, meaning that not only does the POS terminal not need NFC for it to work, you don’t have to swipe a card; you could say the phone tricks the terminal into thinking a card has been swiped.

The second killer feature is the support for your existing cards, and Samsung has partnered with Visa Inc. and Master Inc. to allow this to happen.

How setting it all up works isn’t clear at this stage, but we do know you add your existing cards to the app, then when you make a payment you simply select which card you want to use. Hold the S6 above the terminal, sign if required, and enter a pin number, then bingo, payment is made directly from your account, not via Apple or any other third party middleman.

It could be argued that many would have no problems with Apple processing their payments, but imagine a day where mobile payments become the norm; what would a user prefer on their bank statements, a whole page of “Apple Pay” payments or simply the details of the shop they’ve made a purchase with.

Hands down best on the market

With legacy POS support and the ability to use your own cards to make payment, the Galaxy S6 is without question the best mobile phone on the market for mobile payments.

Apple Pay and Google Wallet (remember them?) and support for NFC exclusively is the future, without question, but the future isn’t here yet, and even if it eventually arrives by way of full NFC support among merchants sometime in the next 5 to 10 years in the United States, Samsung supports that anyway.

If you want to replace your cards with your mobile for purchases, there’s Samsung’s Galaxy S6, and then the rest.

Samsung’s Pay service will go live in the Northern Summer initially in the United States and South Korea, with other countries to follow.