pingit

Pingit was a mobile payments service developed by Barclays Bank in the United Kingdom that allowed people to send and receive money using a smartphone. Launched in 2012, it enabled users to link a bank account to a Pingit profile and transfer funds to other Pingit users by entering their mobile phone number, with the option to request or receive money from contacts. In addition to person-to-person payments, Pingit supported merchant payments; some retailers could accept payments by scanning a Pingit barcode or by selecting Pingit in a mobile checkout flow. Funds were typically settled into the recipient's linked bank account, and transfers between Pingit users were designed to be fast, subject to the underlying bank processing times.

The service was marketed primarily to UK residents and required a UK mobile number and an eligible bank account. It was positioned as a simple, card-free alternative for smaller, everyday payments and as part of Barclays' broader push into digital payments and mobile banking.

Over time, Barclays began integrating Pingit's functionality into its broader mobile banking and payment ecosystem, and the standalone Pingit app gradually declined in prominence. By the mid- to late-2010s, emphasis shifted toward Barclays' other payment services and mobile banking features, with Pingit functionality continuing in a rebranded or integrated form within Barclays' Pay offerings in some markets or customer segments.

In contexts outside the Barclays branding, "pingit" may refer to unrelated uses of the term in networking or other products; this article concerns the Barclays Pingit service.