After months of development and partnerships, Chase Bank has finally released its mobile payments application, Chase Pay, on the market.

The app is compatible with thousands of locations around the country. It is now available for download from both the App Store and Google Play store.

“Chase Pay is special because it’s the first digital payments solution that benefits both consumers and merchants,” said Jennifer Roberts, president of strategic alliances and loyalty solutions for Chase.

Mobile payments
Chase Pay, which the bank has been positioning as a competitor to the better known mobile payment apps such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, already comes with a wide variety of integrated retailers. The most prominent of these are Starbucks, which will accept Chase Pay at more than 7,000 locations and Best Buy, which will accept it as more than a thousand.

Chase has spent many months developing and perfecting the app as it integrated the payment platform with other apps. Now, after some time, Chase is finally ready to unveil the standalone Chase Pay app which can be downloaded from major mobile app stores.

The app works fairly similarly to other mobile payment apps, requiring consumers to connect a credit or debit card to their account on the Chase Pay app which can then be used for seamless payments both in-store or while shopping online at retailer that have made their checkout system compatible with the Chase Pay platform.

With the app, users can make payments at participating Starbucks and Best Buy locations using the app’s QR code features, which generates a unique QR code in-app that the cashier scans from the user’s phone, automatically making the payment using the credit card on file.

The app also lets consumers load and reload their Starbucks cards with more money, helping them earn rewards for being loyal Starbucks customers.

Finally, the app will act as a financial repository of information, letting consumers check their Chase balance and the status of their cards as well as viewing all transactions made over the last 90 days.

Crowded industry
Ahead of the holidays, mobile payments have started ramping up in popularity, particularly through apps and online shopping.

Some of Chase’s rivals in this area have begun making high profile partnerships of their own, such as the one struck between Capital One and Samsung to let let Capital One customers use their cards through Samsung Pay.

With a rising appetite for mobile payments, Chase is unleashing its mobile app at the perfect time to capitalize on the growing market for mobile payment platforms.

The bank recently landed a high profile deal with Best Buy to accept Chase Pay at almost 1,500 locations around the country (see story).

Additionally, Chase Pay has begun to be accepted at a variety of mid-size retailers in addition to big ones, such as Wakefern and ShopRite, who now accept Chase Pay in-store (see story).

But as the mobile payment world becomes increasingly crowded, Chase will have to figure out a way to cut through the clogged industry to get out ahead of competitors.

“By focusing on merchant needs first – lower cost, zero fraud liability – we’ve got a real opportunity to break through the mobile payments noise,” Ms. Roberts said.