I mean I just use my Apple Watch. It’s not fantastically different in usage and requires significantly less surgical procedures.
I used to surprise bus drivers by putting my Oyster card in my glove in winter and paying my fare by slapping the reader.
The Barclaycard/Barclays small (like SIM-sized) stick-on tabs that could be placed under the back of a watch or a phone - think Nokia rather than iPhone - from years ago did this. No need to insert anything inside your actual body to make payment. Fnarr
Not gonna lie, this is actually what prompted to apply for Barclaycard back in the day. When it was an exclusive Barclaycard feature before it turned into bPay. Remember having one of these stickers on the back of my iPhone and felt like I was from the future.
I don’t remember this phase of banking for some reason (and I should, I was definitely alive then!), was this some sort of option before Apple Pay existed?
Yep, was quite a bit before Apple Pay, and was literally just Barclarcard doing it so was fairly easy to miss.
That video above is from 2012, and I think this started a bit earlier than that.
Eventually this morphed into their bPay brand which was a mondo-esque sort of offering with a bunch of contactless gimicks, and it started to roll into the banking side of things. This was around the time Apple Pay had launched in the US, and it was their commitment to this that meant they decided not to support Apple Pay, and only changed course after a lot of backlash and complaints. It’s probably why they still don’t support google pay, because they’re able to do their own thing.
bPay is now defunct tho after it was merged with pingit shortly before it was subsequently shut down. Bit of a shame. Pingit always felt like to me what the bank should be aspiring to become.
Did not realise this was still the case, wow! 
I was shocked at how long they didn’t support Apple Pay, and would never have got my rewards card if that was still the case.
That they still don’t support google pay… just wow…
Ah yes, Pingit, I had that for a while and I agree, it seemed to be what they wanted but then someone veto’d it. Much like Bo with RBS/Natwest
I don’t think there was ever as strong a reaction from Google folks to coerce them into changing course.
And because of the more open nature of the platform, they can still provide contactless payments using your phone with their own proprietary approach that built off of their bPay platform, and is still what they use. No real reason for them to support the platform that people want to use when they can force customers to use their own.
This is how Barclaycard and Barclays customers can pay using their phone on android:
Yes, the fact that Android allowed open access to the NFC chip was the killer thing that kept them promoting “Contactless Mobile” instead. For a while, when they were holdouts with Apple Pay, I thought they were waiting for pressure from banks and/or regulators to force Apple to also open up NFC. Once they didn’t, and various investigations into it got dismissed, Barclays finally caved in as they were the only major bank not supporting Apple Pay and were probably losing customers as a result. The other big example of banks attempting to pressure Apple into opening up NFC was in Australia, where initially all the big banks refused to join. Subsequently, they did all join and their efforts to fight Apple in court failed.
Yes, I had it too and it was an interesting experimental app. I also registered by phone number to Pingit with Paym but now have Paym registered to a traditional bank instead.
I think both Bó and Pingit were serious incubation strategies at one stage, before ultimately it was decided that rebuilding a banking platform from scratch was just going to be too costly to do. Barclays also had Launchpad, of course, which used to be more active when it was a standalone app. It’s still there in the main app now, but doesn’t seem to be used for much these days.
Are we seeing innovation slowing down as traditional banks decide they’ve reached the point of “good enough”, and fintechs are putting more of their new and innovative features behind paywalls in an effort to monetise? It does feel like we are a bit.
I certainly think the “innovation gap” is shortening - which is going to make it increasingly harder for the fintechs to remain relevant in.
It’s certainly going to create cost pressure for them.
Until now, all of the cost pressure has really been on traditional banks who have been forced to maintain costly branch networks and ageing infrastructure (because it’s too difficult to move off it) whilst also needing to invest significantly in IT to try to catch up with fintechs. At the same time, fintechs have been in early-stage growth with investors eager to fund them due to future potential.
Now we are entering into a different period, where it is seen as more acceptable for traditional banks to be reducing their branch networks (post-Covid) due to declining use, which will save them significant sums. We are also seeing how the sprint to catch up, technology-wise, has paid off - with most key features like notifications supported by the majority of banks in some sense, and probably in a way that’s “good enough” for most customers even if it doesn’t truly match fintechs yet.
Meanwhile, fintechs are starting to feel pressure from investors who want to see profitability and returns, so they are no longer innovating at breakneck speed or seeing such rapid user growth (because the initial early-adopters phase of rapid growth is over). The honeymoon period for investors is therefore ending and they want to see results. This has led to a relentless pressure to monetise which is the driving force behind most new features nowadays (Plus, Premium, Monzo Flex) but these new features have less of a wide appeal to customers, with many of them arguably quite niche, and they also aren’t free - so act as less of a draw to customers who need persuading to move away from traditional banks.
I would say that Monzo, Starling and Revolut (at least) have established themselves as a long-term presence in the UK market, and have a secure future, but we may as customers not see the same levels of rapid innovation again unless something else comes along to cause a market upset. It is possible that things are settling down to a “new status quo”, if you like.
They still don’t support Apple Pay on all their cards. The new Barclaycard Avios cards have been released without Apple Pay support, for example.
Some others without Apple Pay support here
New: criminals abusing Apple Pay and going on spending sprees. Possible because of bots that call victim and get their 2FA code to add their card to Apple Pay, other contactless systems. Fraudster says Apple Pay is “easiest” way to make money w/ these bots
I think this belongs over here: