Barclays, one of the largest provider of credit cards UK, is pioneering a contactless credit card combined with a London Transport Oyster card.

The card will combine standard chip-and-pin technology used by all credit cards UK along with that of the Oyster card. The card will also permit customers to pay for low-value goods without the card having to contact a reader or the customer entering a PIN.

It is hoped that cardholders will be able to ‘wave and pay’ in shops equipped with state-of-the-art readers, such as pubs, coffee bars and newsagents. Any transaction over £10, however, will still require the holder to enter their PIN.

“Users will occasionally be asked to enter a PIN for purchases under £10 if the retailer feels that to be necessary,” said Barclaycard’s Ian Barber. “The system is chip-and-pin and uses the same IT protocols as a standard credit card.”

People wanting the new cards are advised to compare credit cards as 2007 progresses and to check that their product is enabled with the new technology.

However, there are already concerns about security and some researchers have claimed to have cracked the encryption (coding) used to safeguard the information.