Barclaycard puts a credit card in your Orange mobile
Contactless life comes closer
Barclaycard and Orange have announced a new service that allows you to make contactless payments simply by waving your mobile phone.
The two companies have hailed the new development as the "biggest revolution in payments since plastic cards were introduced over 40 years ago," which may be a little bit over the top.
Customers using the technology, developed by MasterCard, will be able to pass their mobile phone over a reader to pay for goods less than £10, with the amount taken from their credit card account.
Rewards for no touching
Users will soon be able to pay for goods in ticketing, transport and 'rewards' as well, which sound ominous, using the system which works in a similar way the Oyster card ticketing system works, by integrating RFID chips into the Orange handsets.
Tom Alexander, chief executive of Orange UK, said: "Today you pay for things by cash or on your credit card. Tomorrow, you'll use your mobile to buy the things you want, whether that's on the high street or the internet."
Antony Jenkins, chief executive of Barclaycard, said: "There has been a lot of talk about mobile payments and now it's going to become a reality for our customers."
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Barclaycard, one of the biggest providers of wallet-dwelling plastic, has apparently invested a seven figure sum to eradicate said flexible friends in favour of contactless payments.
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.