Barclays to roll out new Android phone 'tap and pay' service

Barclays customers will be able to use their Android phones to "tap and pay" as the bank rolls out a new payments service in the coming weeks.

The service, which can be set up within Barclays' mobile banking app, will allow customers with Android phones to pay at any of the 400,000 contactless locations across the UK, including across the London transport network.

Customers will be able to use their phones to make contactless payments in a similar way to using a contactless card.

Like contactless cards, people will be able to pay for items worth up to £30 in a single transaction without having to give a signature or enter a Pin. Instead of swiping their card on a reader, people will tap their phone.

Barclays said the tap and go mobile service works without customers having to open an app, making it simple to use.

If someone with this service were to lose their phone, they should contact Barclays, which can put a block on it being able to make contactless payments.

The service will also allow contactless payments of between £30 and £100 to be made by tapping the mobile device.

People making payments of over £30 will need to enter their card's Pin into the keypad, as they would if they paid by card.

Barclays' mobile banking app is already used by five million customers, who access the app 27 times a month on average.

Both credit and debit cards can be used for the new mobile payments service.

Customers wanting to use the service need to actively set it up and they will need to select which card they want to use as the default card.

Those who want to use their Android phone to make tap and go payments will need to have an NFC (near field communication) enabled phone, running Android Kit Kat or later.

Barclays said contactless mobile would be available from June.

Once live, the roll out would be phased over several days and customers would be contacted by Barclays when the service became available.

Contactless mobile will be available as part of an updated version of the Barclays mobile banking app, with customers needing to update the latest version of the app onto their phone to use the new service.

When customers open the app, it will automatically detect whether they are eligible for contactless mobile.

Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK, said Barclays contactless mobile was part of a series of innovations that the bank hoped would help customers become more confident when using digital solutions and new technologies.