Barclays Is Latest Issuer Of Contactless Credit Cards In U.S.
Posted on August 23, 2007
Filed Under Launch, Visa | 1 Comment
The U.S credit card arm of large UK-based bank Barclays PLC has announced it is issuing a cobranded contactless card with a membership-based wholesale-store chain as partner.
Barclays and Massachusetts-based BJ’s Wholesale Club announced this week they have launched a cobranded card that combines a Visa-branded credit card with BJ’s membership card. The card also will carry a Visa payWave contactless application.
It’s Barclays’ first contactless card in the United States and is a prelude to the bank’s much-anticipated introduction next month of its “OnePulse” contactless credit and transit card in the United Kingdom. Barclays’ large Barclaycard division will issue OnePulse, which will pack a Visa payWave application for low-value retail purchases along with a separate Oyster transit fare-collection application.
“We will be able to use that experience” to pursue new card programs in the United States, Lloyd Wirshba, CEO of Barclays’ U.S. credit card business, told Card Technology’s sister publication CardLine Global.
To find future cobranding partners, the bank may look to merchants interested in fast, contactless, transactions, such as fare-collection providers, movie theaters and fast-food outlets, Wirshba said, according to CardLine Global. Barclays declined to disclose the number of the cobranded contactless cards it hopes to issue with BJ’s Wholesale Club. Cardholders can earn two loyalty points for each dollar spent on eligible purchases in BJ’s stores and one point per dollar spent elsewhere. The loyalty program is unrelated to the card’s contactless functionality.
It wasn’t clear how many of BJ’s 175 stores and 99 gas stations will accept contactless payment, if any. Visa payWave can be used at 32,000 retail outlets in the United States, according to a press release from BJ’s. The chain operates mainly in the Eastern United States. It’s a smaller competitor to Sam’s Club, owned by Wal-Mart Stores. Warehouse stores sell general merchandise and groceries, usually in bulk quantities, and require their consumers to present membership cards upon entry.
About a dozen banks or credit card companies are issuing contactless payment cards in the United States, led by JPMorgan Chase.
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In the last week, I have been focusing on settling a number of matters involving these type of vredit cards, I could tell you guys about them, but I am not allowed…