Less than a year after LeapRate reported about Apple Pay entering the UK market, Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) and Barclaycard announced the availability of the service to their UK clients.
Effective April 5, 2016, clients of Barclays and Barclaycard can use Apple Pay to pay at the hundreds of thousands of locations across the UK that accept contactless payments. Customers can make payments using iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad.
Barclaycard introduced the first contactless credit cards in the UK in 2007 and Barclays was the first bank to roll-out contactless debit cards to its customers. Contactless payments have registered immense growth since then. Spending increased more than three-fold in 2015, with 140 million contactless transactions made in December alone – the equivalent of 52 every second, Barclays notes in its announcement.
Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK, said:
“We are passionate about helping customers access services and carry out their day to day transactions in the way that suits them. As part of this, we have developed a range of digital innovations that allow people to choose how, when and where they bank and make payments. Adding to the existing choice, from today both Barclays debit and Barclaycard credit card customers can use Apple Pay to make payments with their Apple device across the UK.”
You can view the full announcement from Barclays by clicking here.