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Barclaycard rolls out it's contactless technology with Visa
Barclaycard has joined forces with The Co-operative Food as it becomes the UK's first major grocery retailer to introduce contactless payment in its stores nationwide.
The contactless roll-out will begin with a pilot in 100 Co-operative food stores next year after an agreement was signed with Barclaycard in partnership with Visa. If the pilot is successful, The Co-operative will roll out the terminals to the majority of its food stores in time for the 2012 Olympics, which is being billed as a contactless event, where visitors are expected to experience the full convenience of contactless payment on transport, tickets and other low value purchases.
Contactless payment allows customers to make purchases of 15 pounds Sterling or less, without the need to enter a PIN or insert their card into a payment terminal. Once the card has been held over the contactless terminal, the secure transaction uses the tried and tested Chip and PIN technology to automatically add the purchase to the customer's credit card or debit it from their current account.
Contactless payment, which is already commonplace and proving popular in the US and Asia, is ideal for transactions where speed is essential, especially at supermarkets and petrol stations. Roll-out of contactless payment in the UK began in 2007 and there are now over nine million contactless enabled cards in circulation.
Contactless payment will also increase throughput as research has shown that a large number of customers will walk out of a shop if they see an excessive queue length.