Dialog magazine
Welcome to Dialog, our exciting quarterly magazine, where you can read the latest news about:
- Getting the most out of your Barclaycard solution
- New products and service from Barclaycard and how they could benefit you
- Changes in the law you may need to be aware of, and how to protect your company
- Dealing with challenges your business may occasionally face
Issue no. 01
In this quarter's issue you'll find news and updates on the following areas:
- Say hello to V Pay
- Mobile phone top-ups
- Contactless payment
- Trading news
- Have your say
V Pay
Say hello to V PAY
The new chip-only debit card from Visa
V PAY is a new European chip-only debit card from Visa. When V PAY was first announced, it was talked of as a concept for the future – a way to use the latest generation of chip and PIN technology to modernise the European debit market. Mass issuance is already underway. In Italy, for example, a quarter of a million consumers are using V PAY for their everyday payments. And in April 2008 banks in eight countries committed to issuing 33 million cards.
Open up to the opportunity
As V PAY cards become increasingly popular with European tourists, you may start to see them presented at your point of sale more frequently. V PAY cards are clearly recognisable by their logo, and all you need to do to start accepting payments is display the new point-of-sale material. You should have recently received this material in the post; however, if you didn't please do let us know.
Mobile phone top-ups
You Most of your Barclaycard terminal
Earn extra income with mobile phone top-ups
Why not use your Barclaycard terminal to provide top-ups for mobile phones? There are almost 32 million pay-as-you go mobile phone users in the UK, that's 6 out of 10 of users paying by top-ups and spending £4.2bn every year.
With 80% of top-ups taking place in face to face retail environments, this could be an easy way to drive extra foot fall to your business and earn extra income.
Barclaycard is the only payment acceptance business with top-up licences from Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile, 3, Virgin Mobile and Tesco Mobile.
The table below gives an indication of how much you could earn by providing mobile top-ups through your terminal.
To find out more call Barclaycard now on 0844 811 4404*
Estimated earnings through taking mobile top-ups
| No. of Outlets | 5 Top Ups per day per outlet | 10 Top Ups per day per outlet | 20 Top Ups per day per outlet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | £818 | £1,635 | £3,270 |
| 2 | £1,635 | £3,270 | £6,541 |
| 3 | £2,453 | £4,906 | £9,811 |
Contactless payment
Contactless payment
Barclaycard issues its one millionth contactless card
Over 1.5 million contactless cards are now in circulation in the UK.
Barclaycard are issuing contactless cards at a rate of 200k per month across the Barclays group, and expect to have issued over 5 million contactless cards by the end of 2009.
Over 6,000 outlets accept contactless payments, including Prêt, Caffè Nero, EAT, Coffee Republic, Yo Sushi, Wasabi, Krispy Kreme, The National Trust, LA Leisure, Rowlands Pharmacy and Books etc.
Winner of two awards
Barclaycard Contactless were winners in two categories at the prestigious UK 2008 Card Awards – Best Innovation and Best Technology Initiative.
Trading news
Last minute Christmas spending bonanza on plastic
387 card payments processed per second on Christmas Eve as consumers hunt out the bargains
Data released on 12 January 2009 by Barclaycard Payment Acceptance, shows that shoppers continued their Christmas shopping until the last minute in 2008, with over 11.5m transactions processed for its retailer customers on Christmas Eve. Transactions peaked at 12.25pm on Christmas Eve when 387 card payments were processed per second for Barclaycard's 93,000 retailers across the UK.
The figures from Barclaycard additionally show that across December, there was an increase of 4.7% in the amount of transactions processed compared to the same period the previous year. Shoppers continued to spend on debit and credit cards between Christmas Day and New Year with the volume of transactions increasing 8.8% compared to the same period in December 2007. Although a greater number of transactions were recorded, the average transaction in December 2008 was £47.98, compared to £48.61 in 2007, showing shoppers were hunting out the bargains in the run-up to Christmas.
Commenting on the data, Antony Jenkins, Chief Executive of Barclaycard said: "Shoppers continued buying their Christmas presents right up to Christmas Day, with over eleven and a half million transactions on Christmas Eve alone. We have also seen a significant increase in post-Christmas shopping versus December 2007 as the sales have continued."
The figures also show which sectors benefited from increased sales in December with supermarkets, railway companies and direct sellers, which includes catalogue companies, seeing increases in the value of total transactions compared with the previous year.
Have your say?
Have your say
At Barclaycard, we continuously strive to satisfy our customers' needs. An integral part of this is to directly understand your requirements, and to measure how well you believe we perform against these.
A survey is run quarterly as part of our continuing commitment to customer centricity and to the delivery of excellent customer service. The survey explores customer satisfaction at each point of your interaction with Barclaycard – from applications, through product set-up and usage, statements, rates and charges, and customer support services.
Analysis of the survey results enables us to identify our strengths and areas for improvement, and to prioritise improvements in the most demanding areas.
We would like to thank all those customers who have taken part in our customer satisfaction surveys during 2008 – the results are invaluable to us as we continue to enhance the products and services we provide to you.
The nature of the full survey means that we are unable to obtain satisfaction feedback from every one of our customers; however, each customer is as important as the next and their opinions are equally welcomed and considered. If you would like to comment on the overall service that you have received from Barclaycard, please do feel free to send us a message.
