Barclaycard launches PayTag contactless card
Barclaycard is launching a new credit card that will allow its customers to use any mobile phone to buy goods from retailers using contactless payment irrespective of whether the phone is NFC-enabled.
The Barclaycard PayTag is a small chip-filled Visa card with a sticky back that can be attached to the back of any mobile handset. Barclaycard customers can then use the card to make purchases of £15 or under, rising to £20 in June, by swiping the card over a contactless payment terminal in stores which offer the technology.
Roughly a third of the size of a conventional credit card, the PayTag will be free of charge to Barclaycard customers and links directly to their existing Barclaycard credit card account.
Although the latest conventional Barclaycard credit card also features contactless payment technology, David Chan, CEO of Barclaycard Consumer Europe, believes the new card will offer its customers another convenient way to pay. He said that studies have shown that over half of us are lost without our mobile phone, “so we’re giving people the option of using them to make easy, convenient, everyday payments without the need to upgrade their current handset”.
Never Miss a Retail Update!Visa predicts that the number of contactless point-of-sale terminals in the UK will rise by 50% to 150,000 this year. Barclaycard’s own research indicates that £3 billion worth of purchases will be made with mobile phones in the UK in 2016.
Barclaycard has initially invited an “exclusive” group of customers in London and the south east to use the cards and is expected to roll them out to other customers by the end of the year.
