Contactless payments come to Apple Iphone 4 and Iphone 4S

UK BANKS RBS and Natwest are bringing contactless payments through Visa to the Apple Iphone 4 and Iphone 4S.

The banks are letting smartphone users, though not users of the most recent smartphones, go around touching things to pay for them.

The service is called Touchpay, reflecting years and cash spent at marketing school in action, and is available now.

You can try it out if you want to, if you have one of these Apple Iphones and are a customer of one of the banks that are involved. You will have to get in quick though, as for now it is limited to the first 1,000 people that come forward and say that they want it. The firms said it will be rolled out to the wider user base soon.

"Touchpay has proven incredibly popular and shows that our customers want more flexible and convenient ways to pay," said Ben Green, head of Mobile at RBS.

"Delivered alongside our updated mobile apps, the Touchpay service means that our customers need only carry their smartphone with them to make payments and manage their finances wherever they are."

In order to use it people must download an app and attach a cover to their handset. We've not seen an image of the cover yet, but assume that it is not particularly cumbersome. Touchpay can be used for payments of £20 and under.

"A key industry challenge in bringing mobile contactless payments to consumers is finding ways to enable existing smartphones that do not offer NFC technology," added Sandra Alzetta, SVP and head of Mobile at Visa Europe.

"Services like Touchpay show how NFC-enabled accessories for smartphones can deliver the future of payments today and help hasten mainstream adoption." µ