Barclays Lets You Send Money Through Twitter

Barclays has made it easier for social media fans to send money quickly and easily by launching a new payment service via Twitter.

In what it says is a first for British banking, the bank now offers customers the chance to make payments using their Twitter handle using its PingIt service.

Customers simply need to log in to their PingIt account, where they can link their Twitter handle, with payment being completed instantly once a contact and amount are confirmed. There are no transaction fees for the payment, with a notification being sent to the recipient via text message.

The new service will launch to iOS and Android customers on March 10, and will also be made available to the 57,000 businesses companies in the UK currently signed up to Pingit.

Get social

Over 80 percent of the UK’s 13.5 million Twitter users regularly access the social network through their mobile, Barclays says, meaning the new service offers people a new, fast and safe way to pay without having to always provide either bank details or a phone number.

“We are always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to make people’s lives easier and customer feedback plays a big part in how we chose to further develop our apps, said Darren Foulds, director of Barclays mobile banking and Pingit.

“Adding the ability to pay people or a small business using just a Twitter handle brings together a social and digital experience to create a new step forward for mobile payments in the UK.”

Launched in 2012, Barclays says that Pingit has been downloaded 3.7 million times, with over £1 billion being sent using the app.

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