BMW has partnered with MasterCard to offer an NFC-enabled contactless credit card that makes it possible to hire, unlock and operate a BMW or Mini from a car rental fleet that has more than 2,800 vehicles and more than 350,000 users in the US, UK, Germany and Austria... More
United Kingdom
UK banks cautious in Apple Pay talks
Executives fear Apple Pay and the data it delivers to Apple could “serve as a beachhead for an invasion of the banking industry” More
Brixton Pound to add NFC
Brixton Pound (B£), a local currency designed to encourage consumers to spend in independent businesses, is to launch an NFC ‘tap and pay’ service in 2015... More
Barclaycard tests contactless payment gloves
Barclaycard has begun ‘testing’ woollen gloves that can be used to make payments at any of the 300,000 contactless POS terminals in the UK with a touch of a hand... More
Half of Brits interested in mobile payments
Almost one in two (47%) UK consumers are interested in mobile payments, research from Oxygen8 has found, with 11% saying they would like to use their mobile phone only, replacing the use of credit and debit cards altogether... More
Apple store adds PayPal
PayPal is now available as a payment option in Apple’s online retail store for US and UK shoppers having previously only been available as a payment option in Apple’s app and content stores, Re/code reports... More
Half of UK consumers use digital wallets
More than half of UK consumers (54%) say that they often or always use digital wallets to pay for goods online, according to research from online payments service Skrill, and 17% of 18-24 year olds are also paying for goods and services in-store with a mobile device... More
Contactless donations expand in London
Caffe Nero and Leon Restaurants have become the first UK retailers to join Penny for London, a service first introduced on the Transport for London (TfL) network that automatically collects small charitable donations when participating consumers use their contactless cards to pay... More
Barclays to test beacons in branches
Barclays is to run a three month Bluetooth beacon technology trial at its Pinstone Street branch in Sheffield, UK, to alert bank staff to the presence of customers with disabilities... More
High value contactless payments arrive in the UK
A new service that lets NFC phone users enter their PIN on their mobile device to confirm a high value transaction is making it possible for UK consumers to make contactless payments valued at more than the current £20 (US$32) transaction limit for the first time... More
Contactless makes Word of the Year shortlist
‘Contactless’ has made the shortlist for the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year 2014 but missed out on the top spot to the word ‘vape’... More
Harris+Hoole reports 200,000 mobile payments
Tesco-backed UK coffee chain Harris+Hoole’s mobile ordering and payments app has now been downloaded more than 22,000 times and has been used by customers over 200,000 times since its launch in June 2014... More
Norwich buses get Bluetooth beacons that deliver offers to passengers on the move
UK transportation operator FirstGroup has installed Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons on buses in the city of Norwich to help deliver content and offers to passengers’ smartphones... More
First Bus takes Pingit nationwide
UK bus operator First Bus is to accept payment via Barclays Pingit nationwide following a trial launch in selected areas of the country... More
Millennials more open to mobile payments
Among US and UK consumers who have not yet used a mobile wallet, 18-34 year olds are the most enthusiastic when asked about the potential benefits, research from JWT Intelligence has found... More
Post Office offers Tweet-to-donate service
The Post Office has launched Tweet to Donate, a service developed with IMImobile that allows Twitter users to tweet cash donations to the UK’s Children in Need charity... More
TfL reports 12m contactless payments
More than 12m public transport journeys have been made using contactless payment cards and devices since Transport for London (TfL) launched the service in September, and contactless already represents close to 8% of all pay-as-you-go journeys on the network, TfL says... More
Sainsbury’s tests mobile shopping and payments app
UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is to pilot a mobile shopping app that allows customers to build a virtual basket of favourite products from anywhere before they visit a store, get directions when they arrive at the store to find the items in their virtual basket, scan selected items as they shop, and then check out and pay with their mobile phone... More
Nationwide adds wearable banking
Customers of the UK’s Nationwide bank can now see their account balance in real time on an Android Wear smartwatch... More
Ralph Lauren promotes new line with NFC and QR codes in Harrods windows
Ralph Lauren has taken over a 15-window display at luxury retail store Harrods in London to promote the launch of its new Polo Ralph Lauren collection using NFC and QR code stickers provided by proximity commerce specialist Proxama... More