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I'd like to know if it's possible to use NFC on an HTC One X to pay for things in the UK and if so, what app do I use?

Google wallet doesn't seem to be supported here in the UK.

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  • Do you mean to take over the payments with phone, just as you would pay with a card you got from a bank?
    – veljkoz
    Commented Sep 17, 2014 at 10:46
  • Yes, as I said in the question, I want to pay for small items using NFC in my phone.
    – Jon Cage
    Commented Sep 18, 2014 at 9:00

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A more generic answer, not specific to the UK alone:

As Ross pointed out, there is not "one specific app to rule them all". That payment stuff is very much vendor-specific – whith "vendor" meaning the company dealing with the payments. Unless several shops/companies join up for a "standard", it might very well be you'd need a separate app for each shop even.

So this question cannot be answered by a "this-is-it" app, but rather would become a pretty long list (Ross' answer already indicates such), which would be subject to (almost daily) changes whenever a new "vendor" joins or another gives up.

To give you an example: Here in Germany I know of two grocery chains using NFC payments, each using its own app – though both belong to the same "mother corporation". If not even those can figure a "joint approach", I very much doubt there will be a "global approach" any time soon.

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  • removed my answer, it was out of date (an issue in the question itself imho) and I was editing in a LOT of detail (I have a lot of experience in this field) using the article as a basic template. HOWEVER, I was also concerned about saying anything that would be sensitive information so best I avoid for now! Thanks.
    – RossC
    Commented Sep 17, 2014 at 13:52
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NFC payment support is still pretty hit and miss in the UK. "Cash on Tap" and "Quick Tap" seem to be just pre-pay NFC cards you can load into your phones NFC chip, and not many phones are supported (your HTC One X is not).

If you have a BarclayCard, you can get a "Barclaycard PayTag NFC" sticker for your phone which seems like a better solution since it will work on any phone and it is actually linked to your card. It also claims to work on any contactless till. There might be other banks doing this too.

Worth noting that contactless card support is still hit and miss too - I've found some big stores don't advertise it but it works (eg Tesco) but others claim to have it and it actually doesn't work (eg Co-op).

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  • Hi Colin, I edited your post by putting a space in at the end (nothing is changed at all otherwise) so that I could un-do an accidental downvote on this answer. It's absolutely fine, and I clicked it as I was getting out of the car. If it's any consolation I nearly dropped the phone in the process into a puddle! My apologies for any inconvenience! Usually if you see me do something like this, you can assume I'm being a complete idiot rather than anything malicious!
    – RossC
    Commented Sep 17, 2014 at 13:50

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