Barclays customers go contactless

Barclays customers will find paying by debit card gets a little easier from this week as they start to receive VISA debit cards with new built-in contactless technology.

The bank is the first in the UK to roll-out the new technology to its customers as a standard feature of most new and replacement debit cards from today. Up to three million customers are expected to be using contactless debit cards by the end of the year and the majority of Barclays debit card customers will have contactless cards by 2011.

The new cards include contactless technology as an additional feature which allows the card to make transactions of £10 or less by holding it up to a special reader, without the need to enter a PIN or insert the card into a terminal. The cards will continue to work as normal for chip and PIN transactions, ATM withdrawals and other functions.

Barclays customers will receive their new contactless card as and when their current cards need replacing, for example when it expires, is lost or damaged. New customers signing up to a Barclays current account from today will also receive the new type of card.

Currently around 8,000 retailers already accept contactless payments including many outlets of Pret A Manger, Coffee Republic, EAT, Books etc, Krispy Kreme, Threshers and thousands of independent retailers, with more installing the technology every week.

Barclaycard introduced contactless technology on credit cards in September 2007 with the launch of Barclaycard OnePulse, the three in one oyster, credit and contactless card. All Barclaycard Platinum cards now include contactless technology, and over 1.5 million Barclaycards in issue are now contactless-enabled.

For more information on Barclays contactless debit cards go to www.barclays.co.uk/contactless. To search for outlets which accept contactless payments visit the Visa website at www.visapaywave.co.uk

About Barclays

Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services, with an extensive international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia.

With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 155,000 people.

Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for over 48 million customers and clients worldwide.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website http://www.barclays.com.