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.