Flux, Barclays Team Up for Instant Digital Receipts
While mobile banking, and mobile shopping along with mobile payments, has really opened up a lot of new possibilities in shopping in general, one major issue has often accompanied such efforts: getting a receipt. That may be about to change, though, as Flux and Barclays recently got together for a roughly 10,000-user trial designed to offer instant digital receipts.
The trial will turn to current users of the Barclays Launchpad app, which is Barclays’ primary facility for testing out new potential features with an eye toward bringing these into wider release. Those who join in will be able to see receipts for all transactions in real time, including items like value-added taxes (VAT) delivered directly to the Barclays app.
This allows users to more readily keep track of their finances all from one platform, which improves the chances that more users actually will take the initiative to keep track. If the program works out well, then Barclays will roll out the new option to the roughly five million users of the Barclays Mobile Banking App.
Barclays’ group head of innovation Michael Harte commented “Through the Group Innovation Office and Rise, our open innovation community, we continue to partner with FinTechs to experiment and test new ideas. We are delighted to be trialing Flux technology as part of our ongoing efforts to improve the experience we offer our customers.”
Offering a receipt directly could be a sound idea. Not only would it be a great way to keep track of transactions, but it would also be a practically bulletproof way to spot fraud. Seeing that receipt come in for something you know you didn’t purchase immediately would be an excellent way to tell something is wrong, and could prompt a way to alert authorities in rapid fashion. It’s great for bookkeeping, and probably would be a godsend for small businesses that track expenses, but for fraud prevention it might be the best thing yet.
There’s a lot to like in Flux and Barclays’ new effort. We’ll have to wait to see how it all turns out, but this could be one great new step forward in both mobile banking convenience and security.