Barclaycard launches PayTag

18 April 2012

NFC tag sticks to your phone or other flat surface for contactless payments

Barclays bank has launched PayTag, an NFC tag that allows you to make contactless payments of under £20 out of your Barclays credit card.

The PayTag is basically a smaller, sticky version of the existing NFC-enabled Barclaycard, with Barclays pitching it as the perfect thing to glue to any mobile phone to make it contactless payment-friendly.

In fact, the PayTag can be stuck anywhere – you only need to link it to a Barclaycard Visa account to make contactless payments – but Barclays says sticking it to a phone and simulating the use of a mobile to pay for things will help accelerate the move towards a true mobile wallet.

Tom Gregory, head of digital payments at Barclaycard, said, “What we’re trying to do is give customers the first opportunity to experience using your mobile to make a payment. We want to get customers more used to it."

Barclays also recently launched PingIt, an Android and iPhone app allowing customers of any bank to send balances of £10 or less via text to friend. 

The NFC tech in the PayTag is has been in use in Barclaycards since 2007, with over 100,000 contactless payment terminals across the UK. Once attached, the PayTag can make payments of £15 and under, rising to £20 in June, simply by being heldover these terminals.

Phones that have NFC chips can also make contactless payments without the PayTag via Barclaycard’s Quick Tap mobile payments app, available to Orange customers. Originally only for Barclays credit or debit card holders, QuickTap is now open to card holders from all UK banks on the Orange network.