OnePulse hits the mat!

The day has arrived.

I am now the proud owner of the new Barclaycard OnePulse card featuring London's finest travel technology, Oyster. Or so the media hype tells me.

It's fresh out of the envelope so no comments on use yet, but it certainly looks just like any other credit card. No bells or even whistles. But maybe the seemless integration is exactly where the beauty lies?

I want to head straight into London, just so that I can use this seemless new technology. I guess that's what the BBC were worried about when they said this...

In response to criticism that combining credit card transactions with travel fares could land people in unexpected debt, Sashi Verma, of TfL, said: "People are not incurring any further debt for the Oyster functionality in the card.

"This is for the banking industry to deal with rather than us."

Libby Chambers, of Barclaycard, said: "It is easy to spend, and we make it easy to use by having it available at lots and lots of merchants and locations.

"But we also encourage people to be very responsible, just as we do with the rest of our credit card products."

Read the whole BBC article »

But if I'm honest I 've got no idea which shops I can use it in?! I hadn't actually asked the question when I applied for the card. I'd read all the news reports...

"Over 1,000 shops, restaurants and cafes have signed up to Barclaycard's touch-and-pay One Pulse card including EAT, Krispy Kreme, Coffee Republic, Threshers, YO! Sushi and Books Etc."

But whether they're ready for me to wave my card at them while clutching a doughnut and an expresso remains to be seen.

Anyone successfully used their new piece of futuristic plastic yet?

The Oyster and the Octopus

With an opening that sounds like a children's story book, it seems the Chinese are about 10 paces ahead of us as again.

While Barclaycard are hailing 'the Future', those smart cookies in Hong Kong have been a part of it for quite a while.

According to Warren Cheung, "The wave & pay Octopus card in Hong Kong, apart from paying fares for public transport, is now widely used as a substitute for cash in convenient stores (such as 7-eleven), fast-food stores (such as KFC / MacDonalds) and can be used for drivers to access car parks, thus saving a lot of paper tickets. One supermarket chain in Hong Kong also uses it as a means of storing loyalty bonus. Moreover, the personalised version of Octopus is being used for residents to access the ground floor entrance of their flats. At the moment, the London's Oyster card - the concept I believe comes from the Octopus card - can only be used to pay Transport for London's fares."

So Barclaycard team up with Oyster and we get the OnePulse credit card and a lot of marketing.

It hardly seems fair.

The Oyster Project: 9 Years and Counting

9 years ago the Oyster Project was conceived. With London's population ever growing and with the 2012 London Olympics on the horizon, executives at Transport for London were facing increasing difficulties moving commuters smartly around London. Efficiency savings would be the key and it was in partnership with TranSys that the project began to take shape.

Today we're looking at a future featuring some impressive technology bourne out of the project that appears to be doing a pretty good job of transporting Londoners with a minimum of fuss.

After several years of development the Oyster card was piloted with 80,000 members of TfL's own staff. And today 8 million London journeys each day use an Oyster card.

As for developments outside of the Capital, commuters in the know have been demanding the benefits of Oyster for many months. According to figures published by BrainJuicer, 61% of commuters in to London are 'extremely dissatisfied' that Oyster is not valid on trains or is unavailable from stations and 68% of Oyster non-users state that they would 'definitely use' Oyster when travelling by train.

Find out more about the Oyster Project and the new Barclaycard OnePulse credit card at Oyster information site: http://www.oyster-onepulse.com/