Would it be possible to update the app so that it implements contactless payments directly rather than needing a debit card registered under Google or Apple pay? This would let people start paying as soon as they opened their account instead of having to wait for their debit card to arrive, and would avoid having two sets of notifications pop up for the same transaction.
Well, I can only speak from my experience with Starling but there it seems to be not only possible, but standard.
You can add your Starling card to your Apple Pay or Google Pay mobile wallet straight from the Starling app, even before your physical debit card arrives. This is also very useful if your physical card is ever stolen or lost, and you cancel and order a replacement card. As soon as you’ve ordered it, you can re-add your new card to Apple Pay or Google Pay. So you can continue spending, before the physical card arrives in the post.
Barclaycards implementation is terrible to be fair. It takes over as the default payment app, meaning if you want to use any other card. You have to then enable GooglePay as the default app.
Seems like another classic Monzo bleating of “it’s all too difficult” whilst Revolut (and Starling, to a certain extent) just get on with it. cf. top-ups using Apple Pay, offers and discounts, cash pay-in and stuff.
With Monzo it always seems to me to be about short-term gains taking priority over long-term planning. Like when Monzo introduced Pots, then had to completely re-engineer them from the ground up when joint accounts were created, because Pots were originally attached to a person entity, not an account entity. A classic example of Monzo staff not really understanding how ‘banks’ work.
Which brings me back to my view on Monzo’s KYC/money laundering security, which was never up to par.
I’ve never used the Barclaycard app in this way, so maybe it would be better for the Monzo app to add the card details to Google/Apple pay. It just seems a bit wrong to me that they have a slick appliaction process where you can have your account open in 10 minutes, but then have to wait almost a week for the debit card to arrive before you can use contactless payments on your phone.
Apple don’t allow 3rd parties to access the NFC chip as far as I’m aware. So Barclaycard or any other bank can’t offer an alternative payment wallet like on Android