Barclays roll out new contact-less 'PayTag' payment sticker for your phone

Barclays have launched a new attempt to get British consumers to use contact-less payments. The Visa Barclaycard 'PayTag' is a sticker you can attach the the back of your phone and make payments in stores up to £15 (rolled out to £20 in June) is a sticker which can be attached the the back of a mobile phone and be used to make payments of to £15 (rolled out to £20 in June).

However previous attempts to get customers using their contact-less credit card have not taken off and there has been a mixed reaction to the introduction of the PayTag.

Some are also questioning the safety of the new way of paying. Barclays claim that it is safe:

Questions have also been raised about how you would call Barclays to alert them to a lost or stolen PayTag - if it is attached to your mobile phone.

Some tech blogs are also questioning if customers want Barclays branding across the back of their phones.

Although Barclays have admitted that you need not attach it to your phone, as it could be stuck to anything, the bank are keen to get customers to attach it to their phone as they hope to get customers in the habit ahead of plans to integrate contact-less payment in to handsets in the future.

The PayTag is smaller than a standard credit card and will act as simply another card attached to Barclays customers accounts. A small number will be sent out in May to be rolled out further to all Visa Barclaycard customers, with account holders having to opt-out if they don't want one.

Last month a Channel 4 News investigation found contact less credit cards were open to fraud, it is not clear if the new stickers would still open to the same security fears.