Quick Tap – UK’s First Contactless Mobile Payments Service Launched Today

Barclaycard and Orange have joined forces to launch ‘Quick Tap’, the UK’s first contactless mobile payments service.

The Quick Tap service allows consumers to make purchases on the high street using their mobile phone.

To buy an item, the consumer merely taps their Quick Tap mobile phone against a contactless reader, now available at over 50,000 outlets nationwide.

Mobile payments will be accepted at a wide range of stores including Pret a Manger, EAT., Little Chef, Wembley Arena, Subway, Wilkinson and McDonalds.

Transactions of £15 or less are accepted.

A Quick Tap enabled handset is required, however, and these are available through Orange currently with their version of the Samsung Tocco, which will be available on pay as you go and pay monthly price plans.

Orange will be releasing more Quick Tap enabled mobile phones from other leading manufacturers shortly.

In order to load up their SIM card Barclaycard, Barclays debit or Orange Credit Card users can transfer funds of up to £100 simply and securely onto the handset’s Quick Tap app, after which the phone is ready to make payments of £15 and under in a single transaction.

The app, which which sits on the home screen of all Quick Tap compatible handsets, contains information such as electronic statements detailing Quick Tap purchases so customers can keep an eye on their spending and manage finances easily on the go.

Consumers will be interested to learn that to support the launch, Barclaycard is providing Orange customers with £10 cash added to their account upon activation, and 10% cash back on all Quick Tap purchases made in the first three months.

Commenting on this launch, David Chan, CEO of Barclaycard Consumer Europe, said:

“This is the first time that customers can use their mobile to pay for goods and services in shops across the UK rather than using cards or cash. They’ll be able to do this, safe in the knowledge that this is a secure technology bought to them by the biggest names in payments and mobile technology.”

“Having a wallet on my phone has made it much more convenient to make purchases on the move and I like that it allows me to keep track of what I’m spending as I go. Barclaycard launched credit cards in the UK over 40 years ago and have been leading the evolution of payments ever since.”

MoneyHighStreet.com Comment: Whilst the use of technology like this is very welcome, and takes us another step towards a cash less society, we wonder about the security aspects of loading your mobile phone up with cash.

Will this make stealing mobiles phones even more attractive in the future? We hope not. We hope that sufficient security measures are embedded into the system to prevent misuse without sacrificing the simplicity of making payments this way.