After the end of the year, Samsung Pay will no longer earn points toward Samsung's rewards program. While purchases at Samsung storefronts like the company's website and the Galaxy Store still earn points for Samsung Rewards, when the calendar flips over to 2021 at the end of the year, you won't be able to earn them anymore through Samsung Pay.

The news comes courtesy of an email being sent to Samsung Rewards members, explaining the change, which affects both transactions in Samsung Pay and Samsung gift card purchases with the following explanation:

"As of 12/31/2020 at 11:59 PM PST, you will no longer earn Rewards points for Samsung Pay transactions and gift card purchases. This also means that Samsung Rewards Tiers no longer hold any benefits and we will be ending our Tier program for the time being. However, points can still be earned at Galaxy Store, Samsung.com, Shop app and with other Samsung services and applications."

The retirement of rewards points from Samsung Pay also spells the end of the Tier program, which allowed for an increased rewards rate multiplier based on the number of points you earned in a given period — if you spent more, you got more even faster, basically.

Back in 2018, Samsung cut the rewards points earned in Samsung Pay across all of those tiers in half, followed by another change the next year, though both the rewards program itself and tier multipliers lived on. Many customers complained that the points were even harder to use before they expired under the new rate systems, and the rewards rates didn't really compete with what most half-decent credit cards offered, but presumably Samsung has a large enough customer base now it doesn't feel the need to continue offering additional benefits to Samsung Pay users.

Thanks: Eric