The boss of Barclaycard says the plastic credit card is being replaced with new technology, so soon we will need nothing to make a payment.
Imagine strolling into your local supermarket, popping your essentials into a basket, heading to the bagging area – where no items are unexpected – and walking out with your weekly shop.
There is no need to make a payment, no fiddling with coins, and no placement of a debit or credit card in a terminal. In fact, there is no till at all.
This is not casual shoplifting but a realistic prospect of the future way to pay – when technology recognises your presence, scans your shopping, and invisibly takes payment from your account.
Amer Sajed, the chief executive of Barclaycard, says it will spell the steady demise of the physical plastic credit card, which his company introduced to the UK 50 years ago.
“People will be able to seamlessly shop going between the web, an app or in store,” he says.
