Barclaycard is marking 60 years since its credit card launched in the UK, changing people’s payment habits. <\/p>\n
The launch took place on June 29 1966, in partnership with Visa. <\/p>\n
Barclays said it started with a six-page business strategy, an investment of \u00a320,000 and\u202fa team of about 200 people working\u202ffrom a converted shoe factory in Northampton. <\/p>\n
Within 12 months, more than one million people in the UK had signed up for a Barclaycard credit card, which at the time could be used for purchases of up to \u00a325. <\/p>\n
The bank also said the move enabled women to have access to credit without requiring a male guarantor. <\/p>\n
Since then, digital payments have brought further transformations in the way people pay. <\/p>\n
A survey commissioned by Barclays found that more than half (54%) of Gen-Zs aged 18 to 29 prefer using mobile payments for everyday in-store purchases under \u00a3100. <\/p>\n
Across all age groups surveyed, a third (33%) no longer carry cash day to day, while nearly three in 10 (29%) often leave home without a physical card, rising to nearly half (49%) of Gen-Z. <\/p>\n
And while they were once a regular part of life, more than a fifth (22%) of people surveyed said they have never used a cheque. <\/p>\n
However, physical currency remains in use across all generations, with only 1% saying they have never handled cash. <\/p>\n
Vim Maru, chief executive of Barclays UK, said:\u202f”The story of payments\u202f in the UK\u202fis one of constant reinvention, but\u202four goal remains the same: to make paying simpler, safer and more useful for people every day.” <\/p>\n
Patricia Lancaster, who joined Barclaycard in 1966, said she remembered many people returning their cards, unsure what they would use them for. <\/p>\n
Maria Sienkiewicz, head of the Barclays Archive, said:\u202f”When Barclaycard launched in 1966, it was nothing short of revolutionary. <\/p>\n
“In a country reliant on cash and cheques, the idea of paying with a piece of plastic challenged long\u2011held\u202fassumptions about money and spending. <\/p>\n
“What began in\u202fa shoe factory in\u202fNorthampton quickly changed how Britain made payments and laid the foundations for\u202fthe\u202fsystem we now rely on today.” <\/p>\n
The Barclays survey was carried out by Opinium Research among 2,000 people in February across the UK. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barclaycard is marking 60 years since its credit card launched in the UK, changing people’s payment habits. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21264],"tags":[22228,3343,33004,6221,33005],"class_list":["post-72303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barclays","tag-barclaycard","tag-barclays","tag-credit-card","tag-digital-payments","tag-shoe-factory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116830415221816375","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}