For two days, Garmin, a manufacturer of sports wearables, has been struggling with a huge IT failure. It is said that it may have been the victim of a ransomware attack (software that encrypts data in order to obtain ransom). The Garmin Connect mobile application has limited functionality, e.g. there is no access to historical data about training.

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But Garmin also offers Garmin Pay, which allows you to pay with selected contactless smartwatches, just like with contactless cards. To use this service, you need to add the card of the institution cooperating with the manufacturer to the Connect application on your smartphone and then associate the app with the watch with the contactless function. Then, when visiting the store, bring the smartwatch closer to the terminal.

It turns out that Garmin's technical problems do not have a significant impact on the operation of Garmin Pay payments. I have just managed to pay for my purchases. The inconvenience appears only when you try to add a new bank card to the Connect app. This is not possible due to the lack of communication with the manufacturer's servers. To sum up, Garmin Pay works with cards that have been used before, but new ones cannot be added yet.

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Garmin Pay is offered in Poland by several institutions, incl. by banks such as mBank, Pekao, PKO, Santander, Millennium, ING or SGB, as well as fintechs such as Revolut or Transferwise. A competitive solution, also available to Polish consumers, is Fitbit Pay, operating on selected Fitbit's smartwatches and sports bands.