First busker in the UK to say ‘no’ to cash
26 Aug 2010 12:46 GMT
Busker serenades London’s Soho Square but it’s contactless cards only, no cash accepted
Today Thursday 26th August, the chink of change was replaced by the tap of a card as passers-by used contactless technology to give money to the UK’s first ever cashless busker.
Accepting contactless cards only, not cash, busker Peter Buffery entertained crowds on his specially designed guitar - fully equipped with contactless technology for listeners to make a donation to charity using cards provided by Barclays and Barclaycard.
Situated outside EAT. in London’s Soho Square, Barclays and Barclaycard issued passers-by with pre-paid contactless cards. Each donation of £5 made from the cards through the payment system on the contactless guitar will go towards the goal of £2,500 to be donated to Help a London Child. What’s more, music lovers didn’t need to worry about contactless technology affecting the quality of sound coming from the guitar as the payment system was cleverly built into the head of the instrument.
No need for loose change
While Peter busked, listeners were able to simply hold their contactless cards over the head of the unique guitar to make their donation – with no scrabbling in pockets for change required.
Commenting on the activity Andy Harris, Head of Current Accounts at Barclays: “Today saw the UK’s first contactless busker play in London’s Soho Square and it’s been a great success. Not only in terms of how good the music’s been but it’s really demonstrated that there is an easier and quicker way for people to make everyday purchases. If a busker can go contactless then anyone can!”
Cashless, Contactless
Contactless allows customers to make purchases of £15 or less, without the need to enter a PIN or enter their card into a payment terminal. Once the card has been held over the contactless terminal, the transaction uses a secure network to automatically add the purchase to the customer’s credit card bill or debit it from their current account. EAT. was one of the first retail chains to implement contactless technology across all of its UK outlets and speed up transactions for time-pressed customers.
Barclays and Barclaycard have been leading the way with the roll out of contactless technology with over 8 million contactless Barclays debit and Barclaycard credit cards in circulation in the UK.
Notes to Editors:
About Help a London Child
95.8 Capital FM’s Help a London Child was launched in 1975 by Lord Attenborough CBE. Over the last thirty-five years, the charity has raised in excess of £20,000,000 and awarded more than 10,000 grants to small groups and charities, working with London’s less advantaged and most vulnerable children and young people. Help a London Child is an appeal run by Global Charities (registered charity number 1091657), and relies on fundraising to sustain its work.
The £2,500 raised by the Contactless Busker will fund at least one of Help a London Child’s small grants. This could be used to pay for specialised musical instruments for young people with disabilities, music workshops for less advantaged teenagers or even transport costs for young carers allowing them to attend a concert and take a break from their everyday responsibilities.
For further information please visit: www.capitalfm.com/helpalondonchild
About Peter Buffery
Peter is a musician based between London and North Devon, studying Music Technology at Kingston University and working on his debut album. To find out more about Peter and listen to his tracks, visit http://www.myspace.com/peterbuffery
About contactless
Contactless payment enables customers to make a purchase of £15 or less without the need to sign or enter a pin. Barclays and Barclaycard are leading the way in introducing contactless and there are now over eight million contactless-enabled Barclaycards and Barclays debit cards, helping retailers reduce queuing and cut the cost of card transactions. In line with its history of providing customers with innovative payment forms, Barclaycard also intends to make payments by mobile phone available to the mass market by 2012.
Barclays and Barclaycard are the leading providers of contactless terminals in the UK with 25,000 live and accepting payment throughout the country for retailers including Prêt A Manger, Subway, Yo! Sushi and EAT.
To find out more about contactless payment, visit www.barclaycard.co.uk/contactless/ or www.Barclays.co.uk/contactless
Barclaycard, part of Barclays Retail and Business Banking, is a leading global payment business which helps consumers, retailers and businesses to make and accept payments flexibly, and to access short-term credit when needed.
The company is one of the pioneers of new forms of payments and is at the forefront of developing viable contactless and mobile payment schemes for today and cutting edge forms of payment for the future. It also issues credit and charge cards to corporate customers and the UK Government. Barclaycard partners with a wide range of organisations across the globe to offer their customers or members payment options and credit.
In addition to the UK, Barclaycard operates in the United States, Europe and Africa.
Key facts published in August 2011;
- number of UK customers: 12.0m
- number of International customers: 10.2m
- number of retailer/merchant relationships: 90,000
Barclays.com