Apple Pay will be available in the UK from July 2015, vice president of Apple Pay business Jennifer Bailey has announced at the iPhone maker’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Users of the mobile payments service will also be able to add store credit, debit and loyalty cards to their Apple mobile wallet from “this fall”. More
London
UK retailers to go 100% contactless by 2020
“From the beginning of next year, any new payment terminal that gets deployed has to accept contactless,” MasterCard’s head of emerging payments products Mike Cowan told attendees at the company’s Future of Payments event in London this week, TechWeek Europe reports... More
TfL clocks up 100m contactless payment journeys
Transport for London (TfL) is now processing 1.2m open loop contactless payment transactions every day and is seeing 18,000 new contactless payment cards on a daily basis, with a total of 4m now in use... More
UK contactless transactions up nearly 50% in six months
The number of UK contactless transactions has risen by nearly 50% in the last six months from 16.33m in November 2014 to 24.4m in April this year, representing an increase of 964% in the last two years, payment processor Worldpay has revealed... More
UK contactless payments up 150%
The number of contactless transactions in the UK has risen 150% in the last six months, with the average transaction now valued at £7.24, payments processor Worldpay has revealed... More
Saracens fans get contactless payment wristbands
Supporters of Saracens rugby union club have been given prepaid contactless wristbands that let them pay for food and drink with a tap at the club’s Allianz Park stadium in north London, as well make payments outside the venue and travel on the city’s public transport network... More
Pub chain picks Droplet’s fee-free mobile payments and rewards
British brewer Adnams is to roll out a mobile payments and rewards service in its 12 stores and 50 pubs across East Anglia and London this summer using a fee-free platform provided by UK startup Droplet. More
UK to increase contactless transaction limit by 50%
The spending limit for contactless transactions is to be increased from £20 (US$30) to £30 (US$46) in September 2015, The UK Cards Association has told NFC World. The move follows the news last week that contactless card usage surged in the UK in 2014 to 319.2m transactions with total spend more than trebling to a record £2.32bn. More
Cancer Research brings contactless donations to shop windows
Cancer Research UK is to install contactless technology in four of its shop windows, enabling passersby to make a £2 donation to the charity by simply tapping their contactless card to a POS terminal placed on the other side of the glass... More
MasterCard partners with Masabi
MasterCard has announced a global partnership that will combine its payment technology with Masabi’s JustRide mobile ticketing platform... 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
The Shard gets BLE beacons
London’s highest viewing gallery is to deploy Bluetooth beacons 800 feet (243m) above the city at the top of its tallest building. Aruba will supply the The View at The Shard with BLE beacons and a software platform to deliver information about notable landmarks visible from the tourist attraction to visitors’ mobile devices... More
Tesco tests PowaTag mobile payments
UK supermarket giant Tesco is conducting a one week test of Powa’s PowaTag mobile payments technology at its Dean Street store in London. To promote the service, a free lunchtime Meal Deal was offered on 13 and 14 October to the first five hundred shoppers to download the PowaTag app and use it to pay with their mobile phone. More
Hailo reports on BLE payments in taxis
Pay with Hailo, a service that uses Apple’s iBeacon technology to let users of the Hailo taxi hailing app pay drivers with their smartphone, is experiencing “steady growth”, Naoise Irwin, the company’s VP of strategic initiatives, has told NFC World+ — and Hailo now plans to roll out the service across its growing international network... More
Uber runs NFC marketing campaign in London pubs and clubs
Taxi hailing service Uber is running an NFC marketing campaign in more than 100 London pubs, bars and clubs to promote downloads of its app to drinkers looking to book a taxi ride home. More
TfL reports rapid adoption of contactless payments on London transport
More than one million journeys have been paid for using a contactless payment card since Transport for London (TfL) began accepting the cards on the underground and commuter rail services on 16 September... More
Barclaycard to add wearable ticketing to bPay contactless wristband
Barclaycard is to extend the functionality of its bPay contactless wristband to include access control as well as payments, the card issuer has revealed, beginning with the introduction of branded bPay bands for fans of Southampton Football Club that deliver a range of added value benefits to wearers... More
Tesco pilots QR payments
UK-based supermarket giant Tesco is trialling a mobile payments service based on QR codes, Marketing Week reports... More
Vodafone to launch NFC payments in the UK this month
Mobile network operator Vodafone is preparing to make NFC payments available to its customers in the UK in time for the launch of contactless bank card payments on London’s public transport network on 16 September, the carrier has told NFC World+... More
NFC brings statues to life in London and Manchester
Visitors to the UK cities of London and Manchester can now interact via NFC with 35 high-profile statues that have been given a voice by actors, comedians and writers, including Patrick Stewart, Jeremy Paxman and Hugh Dennis... More