In brief: Barclaycard and BT team up

NEWS Barclaycard has teamed up with BT to connect its customers to the Internet. Barclaycard users will be able to exchange 900 Profiles reward points - earned by spending £9,000 on a Barclaycard - for three hours Internet access per month for six months, and 18 hours of BT TalkTime. Dave Birch, director of ecommerce consultancy Hyperion, said: "It was only a matter of time before loyalty schemes found their way onto the Net. From there, it's a small step to visiting Web sites to earn more reward points." A BT spokesman claimed the venture should help introduce users to Barclaycard's online banking service as well as to BT Internet.