Pay someone as easily as sending a text

Your eyes do not deceive you. A new service launched today from Barclays allowing UK current account holders to transfer money to one another via a domestic mobile phone number.

The claim is that this is Europe’s first person-to-person service for sending money this way. Instead of bank details, Pingit relies on attaching a customer account to that person’s mobile device, in much the same way as a Facebook account is synced with a smartphone.

Just as easy as clicking ‘Buy it Now’ on eBay, followed by another click to authorise the PayPal payment, Pingit promises to revolutionise mobile banking; and it’s about time.

The banking sector has lagged behind relatively speaking in terms of adaptation to smartphones, probably due to safety concerns. Well, each Pingit transaction is protected by a five-digit passcode, set by you, which appears to surmount this issue.

Can’t wait to try it? The app is already available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. If you’re a Barclays customer, you can register now and customers of other banks and building societies, though able only to receive payments at the moment, full UK access will be rolled out by March.

With banks seeing billions of pounds transferred between accounts via services like PayPal on mobile devices, finally one has launched its own service capable of rivalling the eBay-owned company.