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Home›News›Walmart Tap to Pay: When It Starts and How to Use Samsung Wallet
August 21, 2026 • 4 min read
Walmart’s finally getting with the times. Starting August 24, 2026, select Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in the US will start accepting contactless payments. The rollout expands to all US stores and clubs by the end of 2026, with Walmart fuel stations getting tap-to-pay support by mid-2027.
That’s good news for Samsung Galaxy users, too. Walmart says customers can pay using eligible contactless cards, phones and smartwatches. In other words, you will be able to pay at Walmart using Samsung Wallet too, once tap to pay reaches your local store.
When Tap to Pay arrives at your local Walmart
Walmart is rolling this out in stages rather than flipping a switch nationwide. Here’s the schedule the company has confirmed so far:
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When
Where
August 24, 2026
Select Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations
End of 2026
All US Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations
Mid-2027
Walmart fuel stations
So if you tap your phone at the terminal on Monday and nothing happens, your store probably is not in the first wave. Walmart has not published a store-by-store list, so for now it’s a matter of trying it and seeing.
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How to pay at Walmart with Samsung Wallet
If your Walmart checkout supports contactless, paying with a Galaxy phone is simple:
Set up Samsung Wallet: Open Samsung Wallet and add your eligible debit or credit card.
At checkout: Unlock your Galaxy phone and open Samsung Wallet.
Choose your card: Select the card you want to use and authenticate if prompted.
Tap and pay: Hold the back of your phone near the contactless terminal until you see the payment confirmation.
Keep in mind that your Galaxy Watch works here too. If you’ve got a card set up on the watch, you can pay straight from your wrist without pulling your phone out at all.
Does Walmart take Apple Pay and Google Wallet as well?
Yes. This is the part a lot of people have been waiting on, and it isn’t Samsung-specific. Walmart says it will accept eligible contactless cards, phones and smartwatches, which covers Samsung Wallet, Google Wallet and Apple Pay alike.
That’s a genuine reversal. Walmart held out on NFC payments for years while pushing shoppers toward its own QR-code system, so if you last tried tapping your phone there and it did not work, that is why.
What about Sam’s Club?
Sam’s Club is included from day one. It is in the same August 24 wave as the first Walmart stores, and the same end-of-2026 deadline applies to clubs as well as stores. Better yet, Sam’s Club members already used to Scan & Go get another option rather than a replacement.
Do you still need Walmart Pay?
Walmart has not said anything about retiring Walmart Pay, so the QR-code route in the Walmart app should keep working as it does today. Contactless is being added alongside it, not swapped in for it.
Still, once tap to pay reaches your store, there’s not much reason to open an app and scan a code when you can hold your phone near the terminal instead. For a lot of people, that will be the end of the QR routine at Walmart.
Which cards work with Samsung Wallet?
Samsung Wallet supports most major US debit and credit cards, though support depends on your bank rather than on Samsung. If a card will not add, it is usually the issuer that has not enabled it. Walmart’s own announcement refers to “eligible” contactless cards, so it is worth adding your card to Samsung Wallet now and checking it goes through before you are standing at a checkout.
We will be watching how quickly the rollout spreads past that first wave. For now, August 24 is the date to circle, and it’s worth a try at your local store that week.
Written by
Abhinav Anand is the News Editor at SammyGuru and a technology journalist based in New Delhi. Before joining SammyGuru, he contributed to numerous outlets, including Android Headlines, ExtremeTech, The Mac Observer, Financial Express, Economic Times, iGeeksBlog, KnowTechie, PhonesWiki, SlashGear, and more. You can reach him at [email protected].