Orange and Barclaycard team up for contactless phone payments

Wave and pay partnership

9 March 2009 9:42 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Orange and Barclaycard have announced a partnership to develop "a range of mobile, financial and payment services that will change the way we pay".

The companies will launch co-branded products and services that will let their combined 28 million customers use their mobiles to pay for goods and services at retailers using contactless technology - by waving their handset against a reader.

Orange and Barclaycard say they will be looking to expand the partnership to include other contactless services within ticketing, transport and rewards.

In addition, the partnership will see mobile alerts, servicing capabilities and new banking applications.

"I believe that all our UK customers will be able to use their mobile phones to pay for everyday items within three years", said Antony Jenkins, CEO of Barclaycard.

This news follows trials operator O2 carried out with contactless payment, the results of which were reported as overwhelmingly positive.

The main problem for widescale consumer adoption of this kind of payment technology for small, fast payment transactions has previously been identified as lack of decent handsets with the necessary tech built in.

We've asked Orange what handsets they will be offering and will update this story when we know more.

UPDATE: An Orange spokesperson has commented to Pocket-lint with the following:

"The Orange and Barclaycard partnership are discussing handset roadmaps and timescales at the moment with manufacturers. A growing demand is forming for NFC technology and therefore we believe more NFC handsets will be available over the next 12 - 24 months".