Metropol

I hadn't realised that Ulster Bank have pulled out of the RoI market - their branches all close for good next week.

Meanwhile, I've finally received my Child & Co Mastercard. It's not as classy looking as it could be, partly because of the card number/text being on the front, but mostly because the Mastercard logo is about as subtle as a brick.

thegeek wrote: Fri 14 Apr, 2023 18.56 I hadn't realised that Ulster Bank have pulled out of the RoI market - their branches all close for good next week.

Meanwhile, I've finally received my Child & Co Mastercard. It's not as classy looking as it could be, partly because of the card number/text being on the front, but mostly because the Mastercard logo is about as subtle as a brick.

Aye. It's nicer than the Drummonds one tho, which bizarrely uses the RBS design from when they first switched to Visa Debit still:

At one point, Croydon had three NatWest branches all within less than 5 mins walk between them, the first in the Centrale shopping centre was closed during the pandemic and now the second, inside the Whitgift Centre will close this summer, leaving their oldest branch open which is a Victorian building.

NatWest have changed the layout of their paper statements. You now get one letter for your current and savings account on A4 paper using white and grey lines. It looks deliberately bad to try and get you to transfer to online statements only.

I noticed that Barclays have (finally) introduced support for Google Pay on their debit cards. Barclaycard are also discontinuing their app-based contactless payment feature at the end of June so it seems very likely that they will follow suit.

woah wrote: Sun 21 May, 2023 12.15 I noticed that Barclays have (finally) introduced support for Google Pay on their debit cards. Barclaycard are also discontinuing their app-based contactless payment feature at the end of June so it seems very likely that they will follow suit.

I guess the banks and credit card companies have realised there's no point in trying to provide their own versions. Probably cost more to maintain than it was worth (in transaction fees?), as presumably usage was low.

Amex also fairly recently got rid of their own Amex Pay feature in their app. Problem with both that and Barclaycard was the reliability of the payment apps, especially trying to use to transport mode aspect of it on the tube. By contrast both Samsung Pay and Google Pay are fairly reliable and easy to use, both for payments and on the tube.

Out of interest, does Samsung Pay still have that feature that mimics magnetic swipes. I know it was touted when they launched it but I don't think it was ever used in the UK, only the US.

Charlie Wells wrote: Sun 21 May, 2023 14.02

woah wrote: Sun 21 May, 2023 12.15 I noticed that Barclays have (finally) introduced support for Google Pay on their debit cards. Barclaycard are also discontinuing their app-based contactless payment feature at the end of June so it seems very likely that they will follow suit.

I guess the banks and credit card companies have realised there's no point in trying to provide their own versions. Probably cost more to maintain than it was worth (in transaction fees?), as presumably usage was low.

Amex also fairly recently got rid of their own Amex Pay feature in their app. Problem with both that and Barclaycard was the reliability of the payment apps, especially trying to use to transport mode aspect of it on the tube. By contrast both Samsung Pay and Google Pay are fairly reliable and easy to use, both for payments and on the tube.

Amex always offered Google Pay (and more recently Samsung Pay) tho, alongside their own offering. I understand this was about offering an option in markets where Google Pay wasn't available - China for one, I presume Samsung Pay now covers that off?

Barclays' was purely about keeping their cut of interchange revenue for themselves where an avenue existed for them to do that.

Jonwo wrote: Sun 21 May, 2023 20.13 Out of interest, does Samsung Pay still have that feature that mimics magnetic swipes. I know it was touted when they launched it but I don't think it was ever used in the UK, only the US.

The whole concept of that seemed so bonkers I can barely believe they invented it, but then again I guess we're talking about a country that didn't go in for PIN cards in a big way until about 2015.

thegeek wrote: Sun 21 May, 2023 21.41 The whole concept of that seemed so bonkers I can barely believe they invented it, but then again I guess we're talking about a country that didn't go in for PIN cards in a big way until about 2015.

I've been to the USA a few times and it was staggering that they still had swipe and sign in the 2010s. It's a wonder contactless took off over there.

It's interesting that we've not seen QR Code payment take off in the UK or US. It's a huge thing in China and India.

Jonwo wrote: Sun 21 May, 2023 22.01 It's interesting that we've not seen QR Code payment take off in the UK or US. It's a huge thing in China and India.

I assume that's essentially what Tesco's payment wallet is, for when paying in store via their app. These days it stores payment cards in the wallet, whereas I think an earlier version worked differently. It generates what looks like a QR code that appears to change every 30 seconds or so, a bit like authentication apps.

I guess with phones having NFC enabled and being able to use Apple/Google/Samsung Pay there's not generally much need for payment via QR codes. I suspect that some of those payment apps are not available in China, which may be a factor in QR code payments being more common.