By Julian Goldsmith, 6 January 2009 14:22
NEWS
Barclays is to replace its entire fleet of debit cards with new plastic featuring contactless payments functionality.
From March, any replacement cards issued by the bank will come embedded with NFC (near field communications) chips, enabling users to pay for goods under £10 by swiping their card over a reader, without the need to enter a PIN.
In addition, all new customers to the bank from March will be given contactless cards.
silicon.com Financial Services
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Barclays estimates its entire debit card estate will be contactless by the end of 2011.
Barclays already has one million Visa credit cards capable of contactless payments in use, according to head of debit cards Brian Cunnington. The bank expects to have three million contactless Visa debit cards in circulation by the end of the year.
More than 8,000 retailers accept contactless payments, the bank said, including Books Etc, Coffee Republic, Eat, Krispy Kreme, Pret A Manger and Threshers, as well as many independent retailers.
Cunnington told silicon.com: "Customers can expect a more efficient service. There is no PIN to put in and there is no card transaction receipt, because it's supposed to be similar to a cash payment."
The bank too will benefit from a reduced cash handling cost in the long term, although Cunnington admits the death of cash is a long way off.
"This move starts the transition towards removing cash but it will take time. Hopefully we will in time see a drop in the use of cash," he said.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
The technology perspective sounds interesting, but what about security? If there is no PIN and no receipt print for a transaction how can the user be sure about when and how much the card has been debited? Nowadays, at least in my country, we experience more and more service quality degradation due to human error and even systems failures, so what to say about the risk of carrying a debit card which can be inadvertedly debited without any further notice? I see only advantage for the credited party, what is the advantage for the customer in this case?
2. Tim Baker
Although the details of the security scheme for the Barclays' system is not described in the article, there is usually some sort of system to prevent a stolen or lost card from being used indefinitely, like asking a PIN code after a cumulative value of £30 (or some customizable level), so loosing a card would be no worse than loosing a wallet with that much cash in).
On the up side for the consumer, he/she gets some trace of what would have been cash transactions, and the speed and convenience of contactless payment. Although marginal benefits the consumer is also protected from getting landed with false bank notes coins in their change. Not everyone will like it, but experiences so far show that consumers do appreciate the convenience and although initially worried about security, once they see the cards in action they tend to be re-assured.
3. Karen Challinor
I've finally thought of a use for my fathers old silver cigarette case
I'll stick a small wallet inside it and use it as a faraday cage for all these NFC cards I don't want
that ought to stop someone adapting a 'wave and pay' terminal for portable use and bumping their way through a crowd picking up a few thousand at ten pounds a go
as for cash, I'll still be using it regardless of Mr Cunningtons desires for monitoring my spending habits
4. Phil Steeples
Great Idea look at the use of the Mifare card with Oyster, but let me raise a few questions: Oyster cards are succesful because you tend to have one of them in your wallet/purse and you flash your wallet at the reader. What happens when you have more than one contactless card in the wallet. - Your're back to square one!!
Also how long and how many small tenner transactions take place before a stolen card is de-registered?
Therefore steal a card and then buy a pack of cigarettes from every shop that sells fags...
5. Andrew Meredith
As Karen commented, these near field cards give me the creeps as well. The assumption is that the cash collector needs to be within millimetres of the card. With other comparable technologies, there is no protection from a walk through unit that sends out a very high intensity activation field to power up the card and a very sensitive pickup coil for the transaction, allowing the cyber-scroat to set up an archway to farm off cash. A similar setup has been shown to be efficacious with other near field cards.
The other part is of course the idea that someone can be profiling my spending right down to the pocket change level. They haven't said they won't and they have already shown that they do with the credit card data, so this isn't paranoia, just an observation of recent history.
I won't be having one of these.
6. RM
Like Karen, I would be very concerned how close a contact there'd need to be before money could be taken. Sounds like an ideal opportunity for the less honest of us - the card cloners, fake ATM cover creators. Out of curiosity, I Googled 'Faraday Cage' - Google offered the option 'Faraday Cage Wallets'. There were pages & pages of it - some dating back 2 - 3 years. One place was even selling a test kit & RFID reader.
7. Sarah
Looks like i'm gonna have to change my bank next year wheni'm due a new card then. This should be optional if you don't want it you should be able to opt out. I'm anti this idea in principle and its a shame as i like the bank better than others.