Almost three quarters of UK consumers (73%) do not expect to be using cash in five years’ time in light of the rise of contactless payments and mobile wallets, research released by digital media agency Starcom reveals, and a third believe cash will be extinct within the next 15 years. More
London
Tesco rolls out PayQwiq mobile payments to 524 stores
UK supermarket giant Tesco’s PayQwiq mobile payments service, which lets customers pay using an Android or Apple phone by snapping an image of a QR code located at each checkout, is now live in 524 of the retailer’s stores in London and Edinburgh... More
Barclays goes live with Apple Pay in the UK
Barclays bank debit cardholders and Barclaycard credit cardholders can now use Apple Pay to make mobile payments, nine months after the service launched in the UK without the participation of the ‘big four’ bank... More
Google to launch Android Pay in the UK in the “next few months”
Google has announced that it is to launch its Android Pay mobile payment service in the UK within the “next few months.” The service will launch with support from MasterCard, Visa and eight UK financial institutions. Barclays, one of the UK’s “big four” banks and an NFC mobile payments pioneer, is a notable absence from the list. More
UK food chain opens cash-free stores
Customers of UK healthy eating chain Tossed will only be able to pay for their orders using a chip card, contactless card or an NFC mobile payment app such as Apple Pay at the two new food outlets the company is opening in London this week. More
Proxama and Google bring the physical web to London buses
PARTNER NEWS: Commuters across London can now access real-time transport updates and contextually relevant advertising on their mobile phones through MyStop, a physical web service launched by mobile commerce provider Proxama with the support of Google and in partnership with out-of-home advertising provider Exterion Media. More
More than 100m people will make an NFC mobile payment in 2016
More than 100m people around the world will use an NFC handset to make a purchase this year, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, and the value of transactions conducted via NFC handsets will grow from US$30bn in 2016 to US$240bn in 2021. More
MasterCard offers Apple Pay users free travel in London
MasterCard cardholders using Apple Pay can travel for free around London for the next three consecutive Mondays... More
Contactless spending in the UK topped £7.75bn in 2015
UK spending on contactless cards rose more than threefold in 2015 to reach £7.75bn (US$10.8bn), research from The UK Cards Association reveals, meaning that total contactless spending last year was more than double that of the preceding seven years combined... More
Charity goes contactless for World Cancer Day
UK consumers can make a £2 donation to Cancer Research UK by tapping their contactless card against small portable readers being launched in London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Leeds as part of today’s World Cancer Day fundraising campaign... More
Barclaycard reports 164% increase in contactless transactions for 2015
The value of payments made using a Barclaycard contactless card increased by 164% in 2015 compared to the year before, the UK card issuer has revealed, while the average transaction value increased by 26% to £8.65 (US$12.40)... More
Oxford Tube gets mobile ticketing
Travellers on regular bus services between London and Oxford can now buy tickets for travel directly from their smartphone using the Oxford Tube Mobile Tickets app developed by Corethree... More
Visa contactless hits million-trips-a-day landmark in London
Visa cardholders made more than a million contactless journeys on London’s transport network on a single day in the lead up to Christmas, Visa Europe has revealed... More
London cabs get PayPal Here
London commuters will soon be able to pay for black cab fares with an NFC device or a contactless card using PayPal Here, the company’s contactless reader that launched in the UK in August 2015... More
Contactless travel on every UK bus by 2022?
Contactless travel could be in place on every bus in Britain by 2022 under a multi-million-pound plan being developed by five major bus operators. Stagecoach, First Bus, Go-Ahead, Arriva and National Express are working together to produce a business case which is expected to be completed by late spring 2016. More
UK moves towards contactless and NFC ticketing across its public transport network
Passengers across the UK may soon be able to use standard contactless cards and NFC phones to pay for their bus and train journeys under a new national framework developed by The UK Cards Association in collaboration with public transport operators... More
London taxis to get contactless payments
All London taxis will be required to accept contactless payments from October 2016, Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed... More
MasterCard lets Apple Pay users travel for free in London
Passengers using Apple Pay to pay for travel with a MasterCard on London’s transport network will have their fares refunded by the payments network over the next four Mondays. More
East London commuters get free bPay wristbands for tap-to-pay travel
Train operator c2c, which runs rail services for commuters across London, Southend and Essex, is offering a free Barclaycard bPay contactless payment wristband to 8,000 selected local rail passengers in East London and Thurrock to enable them to access cheaper rail travel by tapping to pay with their wrist. More
NXP backs NFC hackathon
PARTNER NEWS: Chip maker NXP is sponsoring a series of hackathons centred on NFC, Bluetooth Low Energy and RFID technologies... More