Our Innovations / Trends in Payments

The way we pay and get paid is always changing. But the past 10 years has brought more change than the entire century before it.

More convenience and more control

The big shift, of course, was cash to electronic payments. People are packing their money clips away because contactless is now the norm. More merchants than ever take contactless – in more places – to buy more kinds of things. And more consumers are choosing it as the most convenient way to pay.

In fact, many people are leaving their entire wallets at home, because beyond convenience has come control – in the shape of the smart phone. With mobiles we can not only make contactless payment, we can control spending by setting limits on cards, by sending and earmarking money using apps like Pingit Jars, and by using geolocation to see where you’re spending money and confirm it’s you spending it.

Contactless tech is also being built into watches, fashion bracelets, Pingit bands, fobs, loops and more. In 2018 Barclaycard even partnered with Costa Coffee to launch the UK’s first reusable contactless coffee cup, combining sustainability with payment tech. Cheers to that. 

Next… now you see it, now you don’t

The next frontier is payment tech that’s so embedded it’s invisible. Invisible because you don’t action the payment at all. Think of a taxi app service, a subscription service or an all-you-can-eat buffet. You still pay safely – but it’s in the background. The experience is seamless.

And the possibilities are endless: just imagine if you could send money or book a flight from your sofa using voice commands?