Now you can send money via Twitter with Barclays app

Barclays has teamed up with Twitter to offer instant mobile payments through the social network via its Pingit app.

The UK banking giant, Barclays, has announced a partnership with the social network, Twitter, which will allow anybody in the UK to send or receive money by using a person’s Twitter handle. It’s another innovative solution for instant payments and will work via the bank’s mobile payment service app, Pingit.

It’s a banking first in the UK, where customers are able to send money via a social network, and adds to the growing number of ways that a person can send money electronically - such as the Send Money feature in Gmail that allows UK users to transfer each other funds via email.

“We are always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to make people’s lives easier and customer feedback plays a big part in how we chose to further develop our apps,” said Darren Foulds, director of mobile banking at Barclays.

“Adding the ability to pay people or a small business using just a Twitter handle brings together a social and digital experience to create a new step forward for mobile payments in the UK.”

The service will be launched on March 10 and is open to all users of the app without the need to have an account with Barclays. Furthermore, it will forego the need to exchange mobile numbers or bank details, you only need to know their Twitter handle.

Barclays assuaged fears over security concerns by stressing that, since all money will be sent via the mobile app and not Twitter, the usual safety and security measures for regular Pingit payments will apply.

Users just need to add their Twitter handle to the Pingit profile under app settings to sign up, or download the app first if you haven’t done so already. To date, the app has been downloaded around 3.7 million times and users have transferred more than £1 billion via the Pingit service.