GUIDE: How to pay via NFC with Xiaomi Watch S1 and Watch S1 Active watches with all cards, including VISA and Mastercard?

Xiaomi recently introduced the very interesting Xiaomi Watch S1 Active smartwatches, featuring the long-awaited NFC payments support via Xiaomi Pay. This service is available in Europe too, so we in Slovakia can enjoy paying with our watches as well.

Only two supported Slovak banks

At the time of writing, the Xiaomi Pay service shows only one supported Slovak bank: mBank. To make things even better, only cards issued by Mastercard are supported, so you won’t be able to use Visa. The bank’s website also confirms this.

You can also verify it directly in the Mi Fitness app, which is required to pair the Xiaomi S1 Active watch with your smartphone. The list of supported banks is available after you click the Add button in the Xiaomi Pay menu. One very important option lights up there as well: the Curve service, which we’ll talk about in more detail.

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At the time we wrote this article, we found out that besides mBank, you can also use Mastercard cards from Prima banka, even though it isn’t listed among the supported banks in the Mi Fitness app. Official information directly from the bank is also available on their website.

As reported by Živé.sk, the outlook for Xiaomi Pay support in Slovakia doesn’t look too rosy. Tatra Banka and VÚB currently do not plan to launch support for this service. 365 banka admitted it may reconsider if it finds interest among its clients, and Slovenská sporiteľňa did not rule out launching this service, but for now it is focusing on other solutions.

UniCredit and Fio banka did not specify their plans, and only ČSOB was the only bank to say that it plans to implement this solution in the long term.

The solution to support all cards and banks is the Curve service

Curve is still a fairly unknown concept in our region. It’s a British payment service that aggregates multiple cards under your own, custom account. In other words, under your Curve account—where you also get a standard payment card—you can add several cards from different companies and banks, and then pay using your Curve card.

It aggregates several cards, so you can choose which of your own cards to pay with. Under the Curve card, you can add, for example, our Visa card from Tatra Banka or ČSOB; in the store, you tap the Curve card on the terminal, but the funds will be deducted from the ČSOB card.

You can also add, for example, a Revolut card to Curve. Then, at the next shop where you pay with your Curve card as well, the money will be taken from your Revolut account. Whichever card you set as the default for payments in the Curve app will be used.

The advantage is that we don’t need to carry all the cards with us. We only need one—the one from Curve—which is also supported by Xiaomi Pay. This way, we bypass the inability to add cards from our Slovak banks.

Registration in the Curve service

The first step is creating an account. For that, you’ll need an app on your smartphone. The app is available on Google Play, the AppStore, and AppGallery for Huawei.

First, we selected the country of origin (Slovakia) and then entered our phone number, where we received a verification code. The next step is to enter your email address, where you’ll also receive a verification email. Registration continues by creating a four-digit PIN code, which you enter for verification twice.

Then you fill in your personal details such as first name, last name, date of birth, and enter your address. Here we ran into a small requirement: a mandatory field for the building name and its number. Without filling in this information, you won’t be able to go to the next step. We entered the street name and the building number, just like in the next address field, and we had no issues with verification or card delivery.

In the next step, you choose the type of employment. We selected the Employee option. After that, you add your card by entering the card number, your name, and other details—similar to when you pay with a card online.

The final step is identity verification, which involves uploading one of your personal documents and then completing the verification. You simply take a photo of the document with your smartphone from both sides, and the verification is very fast. Within a few minutes, the app was ready to use.

Curve card and its connection with Xiaomi Pay

As part of your new Curve account, you also get a physical payment card, which we received about 10 days later by mail. However, details about the card such as the number, expiry date, and CVV code are available right away in the app, so you don’t have to wait for the physical card.

You can add it to the Mi Fitness app simply by going to the Xiaomi Pay menu and tapping the Add Card button. The app will ask for card details, just like when you pay with a card in online shops. To be able to pay with your own card, you must add it to the Curve app. You can also add multiple cards and switch between them as needed.

When adding a card, Curve temporarily blocks 0.95 EUR on your account as a verification payment, which will not be completed and the money will be returned to you. We added Visa cards from Revolut and ČSOB to Curve, as well as a Mastercard credit card from ČSOB. The Ticket Restaurant meal card is not yet supported by Curve.

Unfortunately, the app is only in English, just like Xiaomi Pay in the Mi Fitness app, but for adding a card and registering, even the basics are enough.

How to pay with your watch?

As we mentioned in our review of the Xiaomi Watch S1 Active, paying with your watch via NFC is very simple. In the main menu, just look for the wallet icon that represents the payment option.

Then the card will appear on the watch screen and the time will start counting down from 60 seconds. Until then, you need to hold the watch to the payment terminal.

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Payment security

If you’re worried that someone could steal your watch or misuse it by accidentally tapping a terminal, there’s no need to worry. Payment is only active if you select the payment option from the watch menu, and it automatically deactivates after you hold the watch to the terminal.

After you take the watch off your wrist—i.e., in case it gets stolen—the thief won’t be able to make a payment because every time someone tries to unlock the watch, they need to enter the 6 local PIN code, which you set in the Mi Fitness app when adding the card to the app.

As for Curve, you simply have to trust it if you want to use payments with your watch. The company was founded in 2015 in the UK and has several hundred thousand users worldwide.