Barclaycard Rolls Out Self-Serve Beer Pump

Getting a beer is becoming a little easier, at least in one London pub, which rolled out a self-service beer pump.

According to a report, the beer pump has built-in contactless payment capability, enabling drinkers to pay for their beer with the tap of their contactless payment card or NFC-enabled mobile device.

The report noted that, without a self-serve beer pump, the average wait time in London to get a drink during the holidays is around 12 minutes, with one-quarter of customers mulling giving up their purchase altogether. Pay@Pump takes 60 seconds to get a beer.

“I’m sure everyone has been stuck behind the person who orders the most complicated cocktail on the menu or a round of 10 drinks for their group of friends,” said Tami Hargreaves, commercial director of digital consumer payments at Barclaycard, which is behind the device. “When people told us that waiting time was one of their biggest annoyances, we wanted to help solve a common problem with a simple solution.”

The self-service beer pump is being trialed over Christmas at Henry’s Café Bar in London and will be rolled out on a larger scale next year.

While paying for beer with a contactless payment method may not be common in the U.S., it’s huge in Europe. Contactless card payment usage in Europe continues to explode as more and more merchants accept this form of payment, according to a new study by consulting firm RBR. In a report dubbed “Global Payment Cards Data and Forecast,” the firm found that one in five card payments will be contactless by 2021. That’s an increase from one in 20 as of 2015.

The study shows that Europe is continuing to lead the growth in terms of contactless payment card issuance and usage. At the end of 2015, there were 346 million contactless cards in Europe, up 41 percent from the year earlier. Growth in usage increased threefold to 3.7 billion during the year, noted the report.

What’s more, RBR found contactless card acceptance is increasing at a faster clip than contactless cards are being issued.