Barclays Bank Launches Wearable Payment Band

The banking world is becoming slightly more wearable (in the UK for now) with the introduction of Barclays Bank’s new bPay band. With the band, wearers will be able to seamlessly connect to a card of their choosing, and then easily pay for what they want.

The bPay band will be the first time consumers will be able to pay for things using a wearable non-card payment system, and use it at 300,000 locations throughout the United Kingdom. The band allows for £20 purchases with just a wave of the wrist, and for more expensive purchases using a pre-selected PIN. While the band is set up through Barclays, the product is fully-open, meaning any debit or credit card can be used with the bPay band, with no usage fees.

The band works very similarly to bands that we’ve seen from those at C3 festivals Lollapalooza and the upcoming Austin City Limits, with a pre-set card giving the option to manually add money to the band, or refill automatically and directly from said card. Even more similarly, the card was first available at the annual ‘Pride in London’ event and Barclaycard British Summer Time concerts in Hyde Park, marking a further trend to set these payment systems at music festivals and similar events.

Source: Bpay Band (Barclays).

To make the band even more available to Londoners, the band can be used instead of an Oyster card, making transportation throughout London easier and faster. The bPay band will be fully available in 2015.

The post Barclays Bank Launches Wearable Payment Band appeared first on Wearables.com.