Orange and Barclaycard today launch ‘Quick Tap’ – the UK’s first contactless mobile phone payments service, allowing consumers to make purchases on the high street using their mobile phone. Customers can make purchases £15 and under nationwide by simply tapping their Quick Tap mobile handset against a contactless reader at over 50,000 stores.
Using Barclaycard’s contactless payment technology, customers will be able to pay for items anywhere they see the contactless payments symbol, including shops and cafes like Pret A Manger, EAT. and Subway. The service will be available to Orange customers who use a ‘Quick Tap’ enabled handset. The technology has been built into one of Orange’s best-selling devices, the Samsung Tocco Lite, the Samsung Tocco Quick Tap will be available on pay as you go and pay monthly price plans, with more handsets expected to follow from a selection of leading manufacturers.
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 payment app, 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.
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. Pippa Dunn, Orange Vice President, said: “We no longer use our mobile phones simply for talking and texting – apps, cameras and music players allow us to use them for a lot more. So, making contactless payments with your mobile is a natural and really exciting innovate. It’s going to start a revolution in the way we pay for things on the high street.”
Orange and Barclaycard announced their partnership to bring contactless mobile payments to market in 2009. The new devices use NFC technology, and this solution builds on existing contactless payment technology with 12.9 million contactless credit and debit cards already in circulation, of which over 11.4m have been issued by Barclaycard and Barclays who have been pioneers in bringing it to market since 2007.
Mobile Contactless Payments from Orange and Barclaycard have been developed to ensure customers’ transactions and personal data will be protected and secure, with users having the option to enter a PIN on their handset before each transaction providing an additional layer of security.
MasterCard will provide the payment capability for the contactless mobile transactions. Contactless transactions on mobile phones benefit from the same 100% fraud guarantee as standard Barclays and Barclaycard transactions nationwide. Since contactless mobile payments are processed online, if a customer cancels their phone because it is lost, damaged or stolen, no transactions can be completed.
