Even as Android Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay are all set to duke it out with their own mobile payment gateways, that isn’t stopping other brands from going at it as well. In the UK, financial services provider Barclaycard will be the first in their industry to have Android smartphones enabled for contactless payments across the country through a special app. The service starts November and may very well beat the other aforementioned systems into the UK market.
All NFC-enabled Android smartphones will be eligible to make these “touch and go” payments at more than 300,000 facilities in the UK, which will include the London transport network. If you’re a Barclay card customer, as soon as you enable your smartphone to do so, you can set up your app in less than a minute (or so they say). Afterwards, you don’t need to open the app or enter a pin if your transactions are not more than £30. If your transaction is more than that but up to £100, you can still do payments through your device, but you’d have to enter a pin for security purposes.
If you’ve lost your Barclaycard or had it stolen, you can now have it virtually replaced through the app as well. As soon as you report it and the contact center has verified all the information, then the virtual replacement card will be sent through the app and you can use it as soon as you receive it. A physical card will be sent later on.
While only 40% of UK smartphones are NFC-enabled, the number is expected to grow by 85% by 2019. Spending through contactless payment has also grown by 150% the past 12 months, so this may be a pretty good move for Barclaycard this early on.
SOURCE: Barclaycard
