Barclays and Barclaycard carried out an experiential campaign for their contactless card technology recently, with the London Community Gospel Choir serenading Covent Garden accepting contactless card payments only.

Christmas shoppers in Covent Garden were given pre-paid Barclays and Barclaycard contactless cards, with each donation of £5 made from the cards through the payment system on the contactless collection bucket donated to children’s charity, Help a Capital Child. The campaign managed to raise £2,500 for the charity.

The first song sung by the ‘cashless carol singers’ was ‘Silent Night’, to signify that there was no change clinking into the collection bucket.

Richard Armstrong, head of UK payment acceptance at Barclaycard, said: “At this time of the year, shoppers are often caught short of change when they hear Christmas carollers singing on the high street for charity. We introduced the UK’s first contactless carol singers at London’s Covent Garden to make it easier and quicker for people to make donations on the go.

“The event was a great success – demonstrating that anyone can go contactless, not just carol singers! The London Community Gospel Choir sound fantastic and the crowds enjoyed their performance and donated to a great cause via contactless.”

The contactless cards allow customers to make purchases of £15 or less, without the need to enter a PIN or their card into a payment terminal.