Barclays set to introduce oyster facilities on its credit cards

January 18, 2007

Barclays have teamed up with Transport for London and together they have come to an agreement that Barclays, can introduce Oyster facilities onto all of its credit cards. The move is set to be made by the end of 2007 and it is likely to also include a new ‘wave and pay’ facility which makes purchasing small things such as newspapers, a whole lot easier and quicker.

People who already use Oyster cards think that the move is an excellent idea as everything they now need, will be on one single card. Another thing which might make people want the card is the fact that Transport for London has said that the profits made from the cards will go into the transport system. Whether that will mean we will have better transport or not is another matter entirely, but for now the intention is there.

Barclays have said that they have had to do a lot to get the Oyster facilities for their cards and as of yet they still do not know whether they are going to put the facilities on credit cards or debit cards. They could even put them on both to make things more accessible for everyone. They are also hoping that the move will appeal to the Oyster card users and those were the main groups of people they targeted when thinking of making the change.

In order to ensure that the cards are going to work, there are going to be various trials with a bigger one in the spring. This is because there is not only one technology that they have to fit their cards with, but they also have the ‘wave and pay’ option to add on too.

Overall this is bound to be a move which current Oyster card users will love and with quicker small purchases it has definitely got to be a good thing!