Contactless mobile payments will “revolutionise” the high street

The Everything Everywhere service says it will offer consumers greater convenience and control on the high street, with 42,500 live Barclaycard contactless terminals already in retail outlets including Pret a Manger, EAT and Little Chef. The technology works by consumers simply waving their mobile phone against a contactless reader. Barclaycard and Orange believe this will be the biggest revolution in payments since credit cards were introduced in the UK by Barclaycard over 40 years ago. Gerry McQuade, chief development officer, Everything Everywhere, said: "We're making something that's been talked about for many years a reality and very soon, using your mobile to buy a sandwich, a cinema ticket or in time, even something bigger like a computer will simply be the norm." David Chan, CEO of Barclaycard Consumer Europe, echoed these thoughts: "I believe that future generations will find it surprising that early this century we were still carrying separate items to buy goods and to communicate with each other." There are currently 11.6m contactless credit and debit cards already in circulation, of which over 10m have been issued by Barclaycard and Barclays.