UK-based Barclays, a financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services, has announced that its customers will soon be able to pay their way with the wave of a card as the bank is set to roll out contactless Visa debit cards.
From March 2009, most Barclays debit cards that are issued or reissued will have contactless technology built in as standard. More than three million customers are expected to be using contactless debit cards by the end of 2009.
The company said the cards use contactless technology to enable transactions of GBP10 or less to be paid for by holding the card up to a special reader, without the need to enter a personal identification number (PIN) or insert the card into a terminal. The transaction is debited directly from the customer’s current account in the same way that a standard card transaction is. The cards will still have chip and PIN which will be used for purchases and for ATM transactions. Periodically the card will prompt for the PIN to be entered to verify the customer’s identity.
Mark Parsons, managing director of current accounts for Barclays, said: Barclays has long been a pioneer in banking. We were the first to launch the debit card in 1987 and now we are the first to give our customers the latest incarnation — the contactless debit card. This gives people a new way to pay for things that is quick, secure and convenient and we are confident that it is going to be really popular with customers.
