Travellers in London moved one step closer to a cashless society this week, with
the introduction of Barclaycard OnePulse. The 3-in-1 card includes the Oyster
travelcard service, a credit card, and a cashless payment facility which can be
used at participating retailers.
Many London-based travellers will already be accustomed to the Oyster travelcard, allowing users to purchase their bus, train and tube tickets on either a pay-as-you-go or season-ticket basis. But this is the first time that the card has been combined with non-travel payments, with Barclaycard licensing the technology following trials earlier this year.
As well as a regular chip-and-pin credit card, the OnePulse card also allows users to top up their card with "cash" that can then be used to make payments up to the value of £10 at various retailers in the capital. Cardholders simply pass their pre-paid card over the shop's "wave and pay" reader in the same way as they would when using Oyster on a train or bus. The transactions are debited immediately, but also appear on the user's credit card statement for their records.
Participating shops include Coffee Republic, Threshers, Yo! Sushi and Books Etc, with "thousands" of London retailers expected to sign up over the next few months. Says Sue Doyle, marketing director of TranSys (who developed the new card in partnership with Oyster and Barclaycard):
"We developed an idea together with Barclaycard which could be dovetailed seamlessly with Oyster`s existing functionality to deliver additional value for Barclaycard customers. This is the first of what we hope will be many such successful technology partnerships, bringing Oyster to an even broader audience in the future."
For more information visit barclaycard-onepulse.co.uk, tfl.gov.uk/oyster.
Report by Mark
Caswell
