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Mobile businesses will soon have a new, smart way to take payments. Barclaycard has unveiled a system that turns smart phones into chip and PIN card payment terminals. The system will be piloted during the second half of this year and launched before Christmas.
Merchants download an application onto their smart phone which acts as a virtual till – allowing them to enter a payment amount or pick from a price list of their products and services. The app then interacts with a small Chip and PIN device which enables the customer to enter their card and number. The cardholder will have the option to receive their receipt electronically via SMS and e-mail.
Paul Cook, MD, global payment acceptance, Barclaycard, says: “We understand how important convenient, widely accepted and guaranteed payment is to small businesses and also how mobile phones play an integral role in their life and their business. Developing a service which brings mobile and electronic card payments together in a simple compact solution illustrates how Barclaycard continues to develop innovations that make our customers lives easier.”
We blogged a few weeks ago about a similar service in the US called Square, from Twitter founder jack Dorsey. UK banks plan to phase out cheques by 2018. With services like these available, businesses might not miss them very much at all.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 11:17 am and is filed under Business .