Barclays Pingit for small business and consumers
Thousands of small businesses are benefiting from faster payments by using Barclays Pingit, which allows businesses to easily and rapidly make and receive payments via a mobile phone number.
Barclays has extended the service to enable all of its business customers to send and receive payments, not just sole traders. Business customers of other UK banks can register to receive payments only. In response to demand, limits have been changed for business users, allowing unlimited payments to be received (previously capped at £5000 per day).
Pingit originally looked like it was a consumer money transfer tool, but Barclays have thrown a lot of money in advertising to promote the product and uptake has been brisk. The latest figures available show that over 700,000 people have downloaded Ping It and already 5,700 small businesses are using Pingit to accept payments from their customers.
The number of users is still tiny in comparison with the likes of PayPal who boast some 15 million users in the UK, but seeing as Pingit was only launched in February this year 700,000 users isn’t to be ignored. The businesses using Pingit are allowing customers to abandon their cheque books and as a quick and convenient alternative to cash, cards and online transfers.
It’s all linked up to Faster Payments too, so if anyone sends you money it will be in your bank account within minutes. There’s no excuses for customers not to pay so long as they’ve already go the Pingit app downloaded, if you can ring them on their mobile and remind them they’ve not paid then with their mobile they have everything they need to send you the money.
Barclays Pingit for corporate customers
It’s not only small businesses and consumers that are using Pingit. Barclays are preparing the way to attack big business with the mobile service.
Barclays Pingit is also now available to Barclays Corporate banking clients allowing them to receive payments from their customers. Businesses can register for a unique corporate ID or Quick Response (QR) code which is linked to a corporate current account held with Barclays. Barclays say that the new corporate collections functionality will provide customers with an easy and convenient way to pay their bills simply using their mobile phone. Companies are expected to sign up for this service as demand from customers increases.
Look out for a time when your utilities bills arrive with a Pingit QR code all ready for you to scan and initiate payment. In the mean time we’d be interested to know if you’ve used Pingit and if so what you thought of the service?
