Did you know that you can get an easy card on your phone? Wondering how to do it? In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps.
I use my phone’s Easy Card more often than my normal card, it’s a lot more convenient. And you don’t need to worry about taking an additional card with you. Hell, you don’t even need your wallet.
So you probably know Easy Card is Taiwan’s most popular cashless payment system, everyone uses it for transportation and buying snacks.
If you’re planning to travel outside of Taipei, it’s the perfect idea to add an Easy Card to your phone.
The problem is you have to carry around a card. To be honest, how many Easy Cards have you lost during your travels in Taiwan?
Buying a new one sucks, especially when you’ll probably lose it again in a couple of minutes. You also never know how much money is on it.
I was lying in bed pondering these issues when I decided to research how to add an Easy Card to your phone.
Although there isn’t much information online, I found it is possible to add an Easy Card to your phone, but there are some requirements.
How to Add an Easy Card to Your Phone in Taiwan:
- Download Samsung Pay
- Tap Generate Easy Card
- Add value at a store or MRT station
- To use auto-load, you need to fill in your ARC details and link a local debit or credit card.
To get an Easy Card on your phone in Taiwan your phone needs to be NFC compatible, download Samsung Pay, and tap on the Easy Card to generate a new card.
It will generate a card in a minute. Just add value and a convenience store or MRT station and you can use it as a normal Easy Card.
Auto Load
To add value to the Easy Card from a debit or credit card from Samsung Pay, fill in your information and upload a picture of the front and back of your ARC or ID card. It’s a little tricky because it’s all in Chinese, but it’s basic information like date of birth, phone number, ARC number, etc.
You don’t need to fill in your information to use the card or load value from a store or MRT Station. You only need to fill in all the information to load the card with money from a credit or debit card.
Can You Add Your Easy Card to Apple Pay?
No. Apple Pay does not support Easy Card at the moment. It’s only available with Samsung Pay on phones that were manufactured in Taiwan.
Samsung Pay Does Not Have an Option for Easy Card
If you don’t see the Easy Card transit option in Samsung Pay it’s because your phone was not made in Taiwan.
Unfortunately, only phones designed in Taiwan support Easy Card through Samsung Pay.
Can Foreigners Buy an NFC-Sim Card?
There might be options at the airport, but if you visit a phone carrier you will need an ARC number, preferably a local ID.
One frustrating thing about Taiwan is their systems are designed to only accept local ids, so foreigner ARC numbers are often excluded.
One way around this is to get a local to enter his or her details for you.
If you have an ARC, then try it, if not, there’s no harm in asking anyway.
How to Use Samsung Pay Easy Card
- Make sure NFC payments are enabled on your phone
- Tap the area of your phone that has the NFC chip to an Easy Card terminal
- The terminal should detect and charge your card
What About Easy Wallet?
Easy Wallet is an app available on IOS and Google Play but the way it works is rather complicated.
First of all, registering is a nightmare, especially for foreigners because the interface is all in Chinese and you need multiple ID numbers.
Secondly, once you go through all that and link your Easy Card, you won’t be able to tap your phone to pay.
Instead, the app generates a QR code that must be scanned to charge your Easy Card.
The problem with that is most MRT stations do not have QR code readers (although more are being added).
Overall, it’s a nightmare to use, and I don’t recommend it at the moment.
Samsung Pay is a lot easier because you don’t need to enter any ID numbers unless you want to use the auto-load function.
The Bottom Line:
Once again, Samsung Pay is the best way to add an Easy Card to your phone. I just wish the value indicator was higher up on the app.
Now instead of losing a single cheap MRT card, you can lose your whole phone.
How cool is that?
And yes, I verified it does work. I used it on the MRT and buy emergency beers at 711. It works everywhere Easy Card is accepted.
