Earlier this year in January, Barclays updated their mobile application to support NFC payments for customers who have a Barclaycard in the UK, and not long before Android Pay was launched in the said region, Barclays also announced that, in June, it will bring a “Contactless Mobile” payment option for a wider range of consumers. Today the Contactless Mobile service was quietly launched in the UK, allowing users to make contactless payments worth up to £100 at eligible points of sale.
Barclay’s Mobile Banking app has now been updated to include Contactless Mobile. The service requires Android smartphones with NFC support running version 4.4.2 KitKat or above, and allows customers to link Visa Barclaycards as well as Barclays debit cards. Using Contactless Mobile, customers can make instant contactless payments worth up to £30, but can also make payments between £30 and £100 by tapping the smartphone to an NFC point of sale, entering a PIN, and tapping the smartphone again. According to the company, Contactless Mobile can be used in roughly 400,000 locations across the UK as well as locations outside of UK as long as they accept contactless Visa payments. In addition, Contactless Mobile can also be used as an alternative to Oyster cards for using London’s public transport, and users will be able to access additional travel information by registering their details with TfL (Transport for London) online.
To set up Contactless Mobile, customers are required to download or update the Barclays Mobile Banking app to the latest version. Once they log in, they can tap “Contactless Mobile” in the menu, choose the desired card to use for making contactless payments through the phone, and set the Barclays Mobile Banking app as the default “Tap and Pay” application. However, one thing to note is that once Contactless Mobile is enabled, the application will show a permanent notification on the lock screen, which can only be disabled if Android lock screen notifications are turned off altogether. Barclays says that the permanent notification serves as a reminder that the feature is turned on, but it’s not the most elegant solution and it’s safe to say that some users would have preferred to have the option of disabling the notification if such desired.