Orange and Barclaycard Launch Quick Tap Contactless Mobile Payments

Orange and Barclaycard have officially unveiled their contactless mobile payments service for the UK. It goes under the name of ‘Quick Tap’ and launches today. It enables consumers to make purchases for goods up to £15 by simply tapping their Quick Tap mobile handset against a contactless reader at over 50,000 stores, including Pret a Manger, EAT, Little Chef, Wembley Arena, Subway, Wilkinson and McDonalds.

The service will be available to Orange customers who use a Quick Tap-enabled handset. It will launch with a Quick Tap-enabled version of the Samsung Tocco Lite. The Samsung Tocco Quick Tap will be available on pay as you go and pay monthly price plans, with more handsets expected to follow from a selection of leading manufacturers. Barclaycard, Barclays debit or Orange Credit Card users can transfer funds of up to £100 simply and securely onto the handset’s Quick Tap app, after which the phone is ready to make payments of £15 and under in a single transaction.

The Quick Tap payment app, which sits on the home screen of all Quick Tap-compatible handsets, contains electronic statements detailing Quick Tap purchases, so customers can keep an eye on their spending and manage finances easily on the go. To support the launch, Barclaycard is providing Orange customers with £10 cash added to their account upon activation, and 10 per cent cash back on all Quick Tap purchases made in the first three months.

“We no longer use our mobile phones simply for talking and texting – apps, cameras and music players allow us to use them for a lot more,” notes Orange vice president, Pippa Dunn. “So, making contactless payments with your mobile is a natural and really exciting innovation which were pleased to be leading on in the UK. Orange Quick Tap is the first of its kind, a service that allows you to pay for everyday items just by tapping your phone wherever you see the contactless payment symbol. It’s going to start a revolution in the way we pay for things on the high street.”

David Murphy writes:
Is this the start of the mobile payments revolution? It could be. I have long thought that the idea of the killer app for mobile is a red herring; that actually, what it’s all about is lots of little things that you can do on your phone that will convince people that they really should start to consider it to be the remote control for their life. But recently, I found myself thinking about what these little things are – paying for your congestion charge, buying a bus ticket, paying for car parking – and realised that maybe there is a killer app after all – payment.

My first thought when I heard the announcement was what happens if you have just loaded £100 on your phone, then lose it without realising? Surely, a few hours later, you are likely to be £100 out of pocket, in addition to losing your phone. A spokeswoman for Orange told me that Quick Tap users can choose to PIN-protect the payment facility if they wish. So you choose between an Oyster Card-style wave of the phone over the Quick Tap terminal, or a wave followed by entering your PIN number. Not-quite-as-Quick-but-more-secure-Tap.

The other thing that amuses me are the outlets where you can use Quick Tap. There are some trailblazing names there to be sure: Wilkinsons, Little Chef. The mind boggles. Still, if consumers take to Quick Tap, other outlets are sure to get on board. If it does take off, you can be sure that Orange and Barclaycard will be shouting the numbers from the rooftops. And if they’re not, that will tell its own story. But given the general public’s increasing love affair with mobile, I think any confidence the companies have in the likely success of the scheme is probably well placed.