According to Silicon.com, Barclays is going to start replacing all the debit cards in circulation with new cards that have an NFC chip inside them. Apparently, from March, replacement cards will contain the chip, which will allow users to pay for items under £10 by swiping over a reader.
The swapout is estimated to be complete by 2011 – wow, that’s some serious logistics going in to that then – 3 million cards with NFC in circulation by the end of 2009 is quite some target too!
Quite a few UK retailers already accept contactless payments, but I wouldn’t say it is widespread (from my experience) – I suspect you might find a very high concentration of NFC-enabled retailers in London for example….
I’m all for NFC, but personally I want to see it inside a mobile device – heck, I’ve got my music player in my phone, some cash/credit in there too would be perfect!
[Via: Silicon.com]