Walmart Pay will hook new users with instant access to its credit card

When Walmart debuted its own in-house mobile payments service last year, the company was not afraid to roll it out quickly. Walmart Pay arrived in 4,600 stores nationwide in under two months, proving the retail giant could still be nimble -- especially if the result meant moving customers through the checkout line faster. And it paid off: according to a third party study, just eight months after launch the QR code-based system was the third most used mobile wallet after Samsung Pay and Apple Pay. Now the company is giving customers even faster ways to part with their cash.

With the latest Walmart Pay update, customers can apply for a Walmart credit card and then use the app to make purchases, "from the moment they are approved." In other words, the physical plastic card that comes later in the mail is just a formality. While Apple, Samsung and Android Pay are all competing at the platform level, Business Insider reports that in-house mobile wallets like Walmart Pay are catching on among larger retailers and instant access to store accounts or credit cards is one benefit that can attract new and loyal users. As for the other retail giant out there: Walmart has also been trying to use its physical stores to one-up Amazon by offering discounts for in-store pickups and testing automated grocery kiosks in Oklahoma City.