Barclaycard’s contactless gloves will let you pay without getting frosty fingers

I doubt there’s anyone in the UK who’s embracing contactless payments as much a Barclaycard. First it introduced the bPay contactless wristband back in September, and now it’s unveiled a set of winter gloves that come with contactless NFC technology built in.

Kitted out with the same tech as the bPay wristbands, the new prototype gloves let you make payments up to £20 just by waving your wrist over the sensor. Better still, they come with touchscreen compatible fingers so you don’t  even have to take them off to play with your phone. That would mean no more cold hands paying for our morning coffee and croissant.

The bad news is that, according to Gizmodo, these gloves are not available for the general population right now, and only a limited number of gloves are being trialled over the Christmas shopping period.

That is a massive shame, but there is a possible alternative for you to try out. Just grab yourself a pair of touchscreen-compatible gloves (make sure not to pick one of the bad ones) and a bPay wristband. It’s not quite as convenient as having the NFC built into the gloves themselves, but you get the same functionality.

We all know how frustrating it is to sift through our bags to try and find our credit cards, so being able to avoid that (and stay warm) would be incredibly useful. Let’s just hope we’ll be able to get ourselves a pair by this time next year.