Barclaycard is planning to launch a combined Oyster card and credit card in London in September. The Barclaycard OnePulse card will enable people to buy things for less than £10 with a swipe of the card across the front of readers in car parks, shops and vending machines.

The card comes to fruition out of deal between Barclaycard, Visa and Transport for London, and links an Oyster to a bank card for the first time. It will also be the first time that a non-contact payment system has been used in Britain, enabling users to make small purchases without a PIN or a signature.

Barclaycard believe the OnePulse card to be the future of payments in the capital and the company is in the process of getting hundreds of retailers to sign up to the process. They will include newsagents, cafes, coffee shops who will need to install new readers on their tills, and vending machine manufacturers which will enable people to swipe to buy sweets, drinks and car parking tickets. The OnePulse is a credit card version of the card and a debit card version is planned too. Barclaycard have been testing the system extensively for the past few months.

Last December Barclaycard announced its deal with TranSys, who run Oyster card with TfL, to combine Oyster and Barclaycard onto one card. Both sides believe in the simplicity if the project and the added functionality one card will give to the other in the final product.

Mayor Ken Livingstone also backs the scheme, praising the ability to buy items and Oyster fares with the same card, and reducing the need to carry cash.

Some experts were concerned about how long a single transaction might take, as the success of the card could depend on the speed of payment in a cashless system. If a single transaction turns out to be slower than cash then customers will soon get frustrated.