When Chase started to issue contactless cards to their cardholders in December 2018, they acted like it was a big deal. It really wasn’t because many other banks, most notably American Express, had been issuing cards with this capability for years. It wasn’t until the coronavirus pandemic that almost all of the major credit and debit card issuers in the United States started to offer contactless cards to all of their account holders.
The one major holdout on the list was Barclays. The omission was curious because Barclays has been issuing contactless cards to its customers in the UK for almost a decade. It’s not like they didn’t know how to do it; they were choosing not to offer US customers contactless cards.
That is, until today.
Both Sharon and I received emails from Barclays asking if we wanted to upgrade to JetBlue Plus Mastercards with contactless technology.
The link led to my Barclays account. When I logged in, there was no mention of getting a contactless card. The only option was to get a replacement card.
I haven’t received similar emails for our Arrival+ or American Airlines Aviator Red card.
While I’m not so sure that people are as keen to get a contactless card as they were at the beginning of the pandemic, I’m glad to see that something has finally led Barclays to catch up to all of the other US card issuers. Contactless payments are here to stay and cards without the technology will end up in the sock drawer.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
1 comment
Highly doubtful that cards without contactless technology built in will end up in U.S. sock drawers. I spend upwards of $40k/year on making merchant purchases. These cards will never be in my wallet. Switching from Citi to Barclays Aviator next month due to being forced to contactless.