Quick Tap from Orange and Barclaycard Launched – Swipe your Phone to Pay

Today sees the launch of the Quick Tap contactless mobile-payments which Orange hopes to ‘revolutionise the high street’.

The NFC tech will allow you to pay for goods at some 50,000 UK stores (including Pret A Manger, Eat and Subway, for purchases of £15 or less) by simply tapping your handset on a payment reader.

A rebranded version of the Samsung Tocco Lite, the Tocco Quick Tap (as modelled by The Gadget Show’s lovely Suzi Perry), is the first Orange handset to include the near-field communication (NFC) chip and the special software which brings it all together. The Tocco Quick Tap is available now for £70 on their pay as you go tariff.

If you’re the kind of person that leaves your mobile around and think that someone might be able to ‘borrow’ your phone and go on a spending spree; fret ye not. The Quick Tap service has several security features.

To start with Quick Tap is a pre-pay service – this means that YOU have to top up your Quick Tap account. You’re allowed to store up to £100 on your phone – but no single transaction can be more than £15.

You can also opt to use PIN verification if you’re still not convinced about the security of just simply waving your blower over a reader.

I think this is a great idea especially for coffee shops and food places that have people queuing as they can’t be bothered bringing cash and insist on using their credit cards for a fiver order.

Check out the video below and let me know if you’d like this on your phone.