Vista and Oyster hybrid card speeds shopping

According to Barclays, OnePulse payment is "quicker, convenient and more secure than cash"

Londoners with a Barclaycard OnePulse credit card will soon be among the first to benefit from the ability to make contactless payments at many high street stores in the capital. More than 1,000 London shops have signed up for Barclays' cashless payment technology, the BBC reports.

OnePulse is a combined credit and London Transport Oyster card that will be launched in September. Inspired by the Oyster payment method, it uses the same smartcard radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to allow users to purchase items costing less than £10 by touching their Barclaycard against a reader. Transactions over £10 will still need to be verified using a PIN number.

Doubles as Oyster card

As well as its more traditional payment function, the Barclaycard OnePulse can also be used as an Oyster pass for travel on tubes and buses around London. Cardholders can swipe the card to pay for travel, using it on either a pay-as-you-go or season ticket basis.

According to Barclays, OneTouch payment is "quicker, convenient and more secure than cash". It told the BBC that the OnePulse credit cards cannot be cloned or counterfeited. And if the card is lost or stolen, once the cardholder has cancelled the card it will no longer work for contactless transactions.

The new cashless payment system has the potential to reduce hassle and speed up queues in venues such as pubs, fast food outlets and coffee shops across the city.

Julia Sagar
Content director, special projects

Julia specialises in ecommerce at Future. For the last four years, she’s split her time between leading TechRadar’s crack team of deal editors - covering all the biggest sales of the year including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day - and helping the audiences of Future’s consumer tech and lifestyle brands (TechRadar, Tom's Guide, T3, Marie Claire, Woman & Home and more) find the best products and services for their needs and budget.


A former editor of global design website Creative Bloq, she has over 15 years’ experience in online and print journalism, and was part of the team that launched TechRadar way back in the day. When she isn't reviewing mattresses (she’s tested more than she cares to remember), or sharing tips on how to save money in the latest sales, she can usually be found writing about anything from green energy to graphic design.