What do we think of Barclays introducing wearables that you can use to pay from your bank? Do you think Monzo should have something like this? Generally I thought it was a cool idea. I can see this being popular in the future.
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These will - intentionally - lock you into using a single financial provider.
Whereas using your phone (Apple/Google pay) will undoubtedly be the way forward to use the financial provider of your choice when needed at the POS
Some people will use these middle-ware devices. Some people wonāt. The scale of people involved is huge and banks are, quite rightly, jostling for position to gain market share using tech. Itās a huge open marketplace - still!
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Introducing? I had a bPay band in 2014ā¦
They keep relanching this stuff but it doesnāt seem to catch on. Iām not entirely sure why - from above the cost would be a big thing but the first bpay band was given away for free, so no idea.
All it is is a standard band (the one I had was just rubber) with a mini contactless card stuck in itā¦ maybe 1" square. Monzo could produce them easily enough I bet if the demand was thereā¦ but the latter is the big question.
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They use a replicable/swappable sim. In theory anyone could implement their own version that can be put in existing bands.
Like a lot of things. I think this like other options to pay are useful and have their use cases. We donāt need a everyone solution because frankly it doesnāt exist. So I think itās good to have multiple ways to pay like this.
Barclays needs to buy monzo for their marketing team so they can advertise better perhaps 
Pretty sure our marketing team are very happy here tbh 
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Completely aware of this, as per the Disney wristbands circa 2012; āVIP?ā - In you come. āSpecial access needed?ā - Just to the left. āPut that entire family dinner on your room?ā - Done. No cards, no writing, no tips, no nothing. Except you pay without realising at the time, an incredibly well-designed system.
Which will extend to day-to-day life.
Ease of extracting money is the goal.
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I imagine they might have some use for people who canāt use Apple or Android Pay, but otherwise donāt really see the point during everyday life.
I have thought that the wristbands would be great for music festivals such as Glastonbury, where phone signal can drop to nothing, phone batteries tend to run low and some people are in any case worried about taking their main mobiles.
It is also the rumoured reason Apple Pay was delayed with Barclays when it was introduced.
Festival wristband systems are a thing. The main selling point is that the organiser can audit the takings of third party vendors on site (who are often paying a percentage) and the vendors can go 100% cashless. Cash handling is a huge overhead, and a cashless POS can be operated by staff with very little training and less trust - very casual labour or volunteers who are working for their tickets. You can centralise all the cash handling in the place people load money on the bands.
Then you put access control on the band also. And the system works for people who have no phone, lost their phone (lost bands can be deactivated and replaced cheaply), etc.
Afterwards all the vendor demand data is right there so you can plan better for the next year.
Whatās very interesting about that is that a lot of banking type stuff goes on with no actual bank being involved. All these POS units floating about that donāt interact with the traditional financial system in any way!
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Thank you for describing the benefits to the festival organisers, @ashby. I hadnāt actually thought of those.
I also see a massive benefit for the punters, many of whom would probably prefer not to be carrying around large amounts of cash - or having that much cash in their tent. A wristband - ideally with an auto top-up feature - would be very helpful in that respect.
Yup although there are snags around getting leftover money off again, particularly for international users and people who want their money back on site. And privacy concerns from people who realise that the festival has all this data on their movements and spending!
I am not a fan of āsingle useā devices like these, preferring to carry as little as possible in my pockets.
Iāve had a bPay (now Pingit) keyring since 2014 and I love it, itās so handy, I attach it to everything and anything and take it everywhere. Safe in the knowledge that I can always use it for contactless payments under Ā£30, especially handy if Iāve forgotten my wallet (again!) 
I used to have a ping it thing when they first came out, which I made a smaller keyring for as I didnāt like the main one.
I really liked the concept but it was at a point when Apple Pay wasnāt widely available I think.
The whole top up wallet part just makes it more effort I find, now that Apple Pay is accessible.
If Monzo had one id be inclined to try it, but the extra layer of prepayment the pingit ones cause is just a bit much for me
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Iāve had one for a couple of years. I got mine for about Ā£12 but itās the āholderā that actually costs the money. The SIM sized cards are pennies. I mainly used it because Barclays didnāt support Apple pay and still donāt do android pay (one of the reasons I got monzo) and it was pretty good. I had the one that went on a watch strap. Theyāve recently moved over to pingit. This can all be used with any bank account, the service itself happens to be run by Barclays. Itās basically just a top-up account which you can set to happen automatically. Imagine an oyster card that can be used elsewhere.
I now have a smartwatch with Google pay so donāt need it anymore
Feel like SCA renders these utterly useless, as I canāt see they have any verification for the transaction?
Iād be interested to see how Barclays handle this.
I think for now prepaid cards are exempt from SCA?
ABN AMRO has actually already started doing tokenised accounts on payment wearables, meaning it debits straight off your existing bank account, exactly like a bank card. Iām working at a London-based startup named DIGISEQ. Weāre getting banks to allow their users to buy a wearable and then put their payment credentials on it. Hopefully Monzo can onboard too because Iām using Monzo myself.
Wearables that would take offā¦ Nicer bracelet than pictured, rings or know what I havenāt seenā¦ Watch straps!!! Everyone has a watch whether it be smart or notā¦ smack this tech in a few nice watch straps and Iād pay Ā£50 for that, that way I wouldnāt need any additional items on my body.
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I would love a wearable! Why donāt bankās offer these options? Although they need a redesign for sure. Bracelet is a little ugly