Barclays Trials Contactless Android Cash Withdrawals

Barclays has begun trialling a system that will allow consumers to withdraw cash from branches using a NFC-enabled Android smartphone or contactless card.

The service is being tested in the North of England before a planned rollout to 600 machines at more than 180 branches in the new year.

Contactless drive

The trials arrive amidst a sharp rise in contactless payments in the UK over the past year and broad use of mobile devices to bank.

Users will be able to tap the card or device and then complete the transaction on the machine, entering their PIN and the amount required.

Alternatively they can enter the amount and PIN on their Barclays app, then simply tap it on the machine to receive the cash. Transactions are to be limited to £100.

“Our customers now expect to be able to use their smartphone to make their everyday purchases,” said Barclays chief executive Ashok Vaswani. “We want taking out cash to be just as easy.”

Security

The service is also intended to increase security by thwarting magnetic card skimming and distraction fraud, which involves diverting a customer’s attention long enough to abscond with his or her card, cash or both.

Barclays said the service will be available on any NFC Android device using the latest version of its app.

Visa found 74 percent of the UK’s consumers now use mobile devices to bank, with 58 percent using contactless cards this year, up from 20 percent last year.

Across Europe 54 percent said they regularly use a mobile device to make payments, up from 18 percent in 2015. Only 12 percent said they had never used a device to make a payment and didn’t expect to do so, down from 38 percent last year.

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