New Pingit App' Aimed At Paying UK Window Cleaners

Transferring cash to be as easy as texting a friend thanks to new smartphone app: Transferring money could soon be as easy as sending a text, thanks to a smartphone app released today. It allows people to send up to £300 by entering the recipient’s mobile phone number, removing the need to know sort codes and account numbers. The free Pingit app is the latest hi-tech challenger to the cheque. It transfers money instantly, allowing the recipient to withdraw it from a cash machine straight away.

The system has been developed by Barclays, but will be available to customers of other banks and building societies from next month. At first it will only allow individuals to transfer cash to each other, but there are plans to open it up for use with businesses and charities. In order to send money, customers must have a smartphone such as an iPhone or BlackBerry and download the Pingit app.

They must also enter their account details and set up a  five-digit PIN. Those receiving a Pingit transfer do not need a smartphone themselves, but must be registered for the service. Barclays said the technology had ‘huge potential’, with 50 per cent of the population expected to have a smartphone by the end of the year. The bank’s head of current accounts, Dan Wass, said the app was ‘the first service of this type to be launched across Europe’.

He added: ‘It is like having a bank in your pocket all the time. It allows you to send payments to anyone in the UK, simply by knowing their mobile number . . . [it] makes sending and receiving money as easy, quick and convenient as sending a text. 'Payments such as sending money to children, for a birthday or spending money, or even to a window cleaner, can be made in seconds.’At first, only over-18s will be able to use Pingit, but the age limit is likely to be lowered in the coming months. Barclays stressed that the system is secure, and said that if a customer’s mobile phone is stolen, thieves would not be able to send money without the five-digit PIN. Users will also be able to disable the app if their phone is lost or stolen.

The Barclays Pingit system uses a smartphone app to permit person-to-person cash transfers of up to £300. Users who have an account with Barclays - and from March anyone with a UK bank account - can download the app, link it to their phone number, and then send cash to anybody who has linked their mobile number to their account. But the launch of Pingit could be the moment everything changes. The scheme has two features which make it stand out from previous initiatives and could appeal to a mass audience. For a start, you can see a real need being met - who hasn't been part of that scrabbling around for cash when you sort out a restaurant bill or try to pay a window cleaner? And then there is the fact that the technology - an app - is one with which anyone who has got a smartphone is now familiar. You don't need to go out and buy a new NFC handset, and then hope all your friends get one too. And at the heart of it is a powerful idea - that your mobile phone number can become the key to your bank account without you having to hand over your banking details to anyone who wants to pay you.

Pingit – now pinging money around from phone to phone: Want us to send you £300? Just give us your mobile phone number then. No, don’t, because we’ve got no intention of giving you £300. Ever. So forget we said it. But if we wanted to, we could do it. That’s because Barclays bank have unfurled a new app, called Pingit, that allows their current account holders to send and receive cash using only their mobile phones. You can use it to send cash up to the aforementioned sum of £300 to anyone as long as you have their mobile number.

How doth it worketh? Simpleth – users call the recipient’s mobile number via the Pingit app, key in an amount between £1 and £300, and hit send. The money is moved between the two current accounts using the Faster Payments service taking as little as 30 seconds. Barclays say that it will be useful in circumstances such as splitting a restaurant bill or paying for lapdances. Sorry, that should have been paying the window cleaner or other small tradesmen. Pingit is available for iPhone, Blackberry and Android-powered phones. Impressively, they say that although non-Barclays customers can only receive payments at the moment, they’ll shortly be able to send them as well, meaning that Pingit could become the standard app for this sort of thing.

Utterly Nutley Window Cleaner Admits Bank Siege

Armed robber admits siege at Ashford Barclays Bank: A convicted robber & unemployed window cleaner has pleaded guilty to holding terrified staff and customers hostage and making bomb threats at a bank in Surrey. Unemployed Matthew Nutley, 36, told people at Barclays in Ashford he would "blow their heads off" if they did not obey him during the robbery on 28 June. Wielding a large gun, he told hostages he was carrying a bomb which would explode if he let go of the trigger. Nutley, of Brookside Avenue, Ashford, admitted six charges on Friday. Following the hearing at Guildford Crown Court, Surrey Police said the hostages feared for their lives during their ordeal. The court heard Nutley walked into the bank in Church Road shortly before 1600 BST and forced the bank manager to lock the front doors. A staff member was ordered to spray the windows with black paint to prevent police from seeing inside and a customer was given cable ties and ordered to tie other people up. The robber, who was wearing a white paper boiler suit and a mask, handed similar paper suits to up to 16 people inside.

He later told police it was his intention to leave with these hostages so armed officers would not know who to shoot at. Surrey Police dispatched armed response units, cordoned off Church Road and evacuated nearby shops and businesses. During discussions with hostage negotiators, Nutley demanded £800,000 in cash and asked for a helicopter to be made ready for his escape, police said. Several hostages were allowed to leave until only three remained inside. Nutley, who was drinking heavily, also threatened to cut off the fingers and ears of the remaining hostages with a kitchen knife. The three eventually managed to escape while his back was turned and moments later, Nutley was talked into giving himself up three hours after the siege began. Police later discovered the gun was an imitation and the bomb was a homemade hoax made of copper piping and wires bound together with electrical tape.

Nutley, who had a previous conviction for robbery at an off-licence in 2003, pleaded guilty to robbery, false imprisonment, possession of an imitation firearm with intent to commit robbery, two counts of making threats to kill, blackmail, possessing an offensive weapon and making a bomb hoax. He was remanded in custody for await sentence on 19 November. Det Supt Alan Sharp said: "We were dealing with the possibility of a very real threat to the lives of the bank staff and customers. "This was an incredibly traumatic experience for those inside the bank who just minutes before had simply been going about their daily business. "Whilst the gun and the bomb Nutley was carrying ultimately turned out to be fakes, to his hostages the threats he was making were very real. "His behaviour was aggressive and volatile and they genuinely feared for their lives."

Original breaking news story here.