Cute as hell Topshop x bPay accessories take fashion tech payments mainstream

Contactless payment bands, keyrings and cases start at £15
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Bulky bands, coat sleeves and now, fun fashion stickers. Barclaycard's bPay contactless payment chips are popping up everywhere, including your beloved Topshop accessories floor from 17 November.

The 12 piece range is priced from £15 to £32 and includes key rings, stickers, an iPhone case and two tone wristbands with bold colours and a "Monster Fish" motif throughout.

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As part of this Topshop x bPay partnership, which appears to be UK only, shoppers will get a bPay contactless payment chip to slot inside the accessories.

If you haven't heard of Barclaycard's Apple Pay rival, Visa and MasterCard users can join up to the digital wallet service - the upper limit, as with all contactless payments, is now £30 per transaction in the UK. How quick, easy or awkward a contactless payment is to carry out will depend which accessory you choose.

Cute as hell Topshop x bPay accessories take fashion tech payments mainstream

And, hey, we're sure some Topshop customers will buy the accessories without realising they can pop a bPay chip inside. After all, people are wearing tech enabled jewellery, trackers and watches for style points these days. Barclaycard knows exactly what it's doing.

The initial, eye-popping Monster Fish collection will be followed by a second collection with a "luxe metal and snake effect design" which will hit Topshop stores later in 2015.

All in all, it's a clever collaboration which means Topshop can launch accessory collections as it usually does and just build in hidden slots for a bPay chip to give customers that option.

Cute as hell Topshop x bPay accessories take fashion tech payments mainstream

"This is a really exciting partnership with Topshop," said Tami Hargreaves, commercial director of digital consumer payments at Barclaycard, "and marks the first time that our bPay chip is being incorporated into a product range from a major fashion retailer."

The accessories will be available in select Topshop stores - your best bet in London is probably the flagship Oxford Circus store - and online at Topshop.com from 17 November.

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Sophie was Wareable's associate editor. She joined the team from Stuff magazine where she was an in-house reviewer. For three and a half years, she tested every smartphone, tablet, and robot vacuum that mattered. 

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She now works for Wired.


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