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The Boots Co., a pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom, will test accepting contactless payments starting in the second half of the year, a spokesperson for the company tells CardLine Global. The test will take place in 15 stores in London and six in Liverpool, the spokesperson says, adding the chain has set no end date for the trial. In a statement, the chain says the test revolves around MasterCard Worldwide's PayPass contactless application. Contactless readers typically can accept cards from a variety of brands, but the spokesperson says the store will accept only PayPass contactless transactions. Boots claims to be the first "high-street" retailer to test contactless payments. Other mainstream retailers in the UK, however, including Coffee Republic, previously announced plans to accept contactless cards. UK-based Barclays PLC and its credit card issuing arm, Barclaycard, said Tuesday they "welcomed" the Boots test and hoped "other retailers would follow." Barclaycard has distributed nearly 2 million MasterCard- and Visa-branded contactless cards, a Barclaycard spokesperson tells CardLine Global. As with similar contactless efforts, Boot customers can tap their cards against readers for transactions of no more than 10 UK pounds (US$15.30 or 11.20 euros) without having to enter PINs or sign receipts. RBS Worldpay will acquire the transactions, the chain says.
