Tag: barclays

The financial institution has recently released an update for its Android application which supports NFC technology.

Barclays recently updated its Android mobile payments app in order to allow it to be able to complete contactless transactions through the use of NFC technology, for those whose devices support that tech.

This service will be available to customers with both the Barclaycard credit card and its mobile app.

This same mobile payments service update will not apply to the Barclays Mobile Banking app. The new service supporting near field communication (NFC technology) will make it possible for consumers to make purchases of up to £30 at participating locations. These contactless transactions are made without needing to enter a PIN or even having to open the mobile app. When Apple Pay launched in the United Kingdom, Barclays did not support the service and became the target of considerable criticism.

This launch of its own NFC based mobile payments service helps to explain the move from Barclays.

It appears as though the financial institution is working on taking its own solid stance when it comes to supporting smartphone based transactions. It will be interesting to see how things play out when Google brings Android Pay to the United Kingdom, as that service – which also uses NFC technology – has not yet been rolled out in the country. So far, many in the industry believe it will take Google more time before it will be ready for that launch.

Through the use of the updated Barclaycard mobile app, all users need to do to take advantage of the service is to enable the NFC technology on their smartphones. When it comes time to pay for a purchase at a point of sale counter with a contactless reader, users need only tap their devices against the reader to complete the transaction.

The mobile payments app operates in the background. This is meant to make the process much simpler for consumers because they will neither need to launch the app nor enter a PIN in order to make a small purchase. Certain retailers will allow larger purchases, as high as £100, to be completed without the use of a PIN.

The recent announcement that these two giants were partnering together has also revealed a plan for transactions.

Verifone recently revealed that it was entering into a deal with Barclays that would have the two companies working together, and now it has stated that it will be integrating with Pingit, the British banking giant’s mobile payments technology.

This would bring the smartphone payments service to retailers that use Verifone’s transaction services.

This means that it will bring mobile payments together for Pingit’s 20,000 clients and add on the 70,000 businesses in the U.K. who are already Verifone transaction service customers. This could potentially be a stepping stone for the companies that could take the services more broadly throughout Europe. According to June Felix, the president of Verifone Europe, “What prompted the partnership, was a focus on Verifone’s part to help our retailer clients to enable commerce through every channel possible, whether it’s mobile, terminal or Web.”

The partnership sets the stage for a broad scale expansion of mobile payments that could occur quite quickly.

Felix explained that Barclays is “very innovative and very well-established player in terms of consumer payment,” when taking into consideration its solid position in the United Kingdom, which is already among the largest European markets. She also pointed out that Pingit provides a “unique value proposition.”

By partnering with Barclays for its smartphone payments transactions to add the option to the Verifone physical countertop terminals, it makes it possible for Verifone to step outside its previous confines of those terminals into mobile shopping areas. This is an angle that it has never before been able to take.

It also remains a type of transaction of which many consumers remain completely unaware. With large names such as these, there is the potential to change that in the United Kingdom, so that consumers will learn about the technology and choose whether or not they want to use it.

Verifone isn’t without its experience in mobile payments, as – according to Felix – the company was “very involved” in the entry of Apple Pay into the United Kingdom’s marketplace. “The partnership with Pingit is really very consistent with that,” she said.