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FMBX News
Posted: Dec 9, 2011
Cashless Christmas carol singers collect with Barclaycard
The jingle of charity collection buckets was replaced by the tap of a card as crowds used contactless technology to give donations to the UK’s first ever cashless carol singers.
Accepting not cash but contactless card payments only, the singers from the London Community Gospel Choir performed traditional Christmas carols to the public with a specially designed collection bucket; equipped with contactless technology for passers-by to make a charity donation using cards provided by Barclays and Barclaycard.
Christmas shoppers in Covent Garden were given pre-paid Barclays and Barclaycard contactless cards. Each donation of £5 made from the cards through the payment system on the contactless collection bucket was donated to leading children’s charity, Help a Capital Child, and £2,500 was raised in total.
The carol singers opened with Silent Night, to signify the first ever silent charity collection bucket.
While the choir performed, passers-by were able to simply hold their contactless cards over the unique charity collection buckets to make their donation – helping festive shoppers avoid having to scrabble in pockets and purses for small change.
Commenting on the activity Richard Armstrong, head of UK payment acceptance at Barclaycard said: “At this time of the year, shoppers are often caught short of change when they hear Christmas carollers singing on the high street for charity. We introduced the UK’s first contactless carol singers at London’s Covent Garden to make it easier and quicker for people to make donations on the go. The event was a great success – demonstrating that anyone can go contactless, not just carol singers! The London Community Gospel Choir sound fantastic and the crowds enjoyed their performance and donated to a great cause via contactless.”
Contactless allows customers to make purchases of £15 or less, without the need to enter a PIN or 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.
Barclays and Barclaycard have been leading the way with the roll out of contactless technology with over 15.3 million contactless Barclays debit and Barclaycard credit cards in circulation in the UK.
