Smartphone cash withdrawals coming to UK high street before end of 2016

New in-branch cash machines will soon let Barclays customers withdraw up to £100 - with just a tap of their smartphone.

The UK bank will trial its new contactless cash machines throughout December in the north of England. If a success, the service will then be rolled out to 600 cash machines in 180 branches across the UK by the end of January 2017. Called Contactless Cash, the technology is then expected to head outside and appear on machines away from branches.

Customers withdrawing money during the trial period will tap their phone against the machines then enter their bank card PIN on the keypad as normal.

From January, Android users will be able to boot up the Barclays smartphone app, select the amount of cash they want (up to £100), type their PIN into the app, then simply tap the individual machine (within 30 seconds) to receive their money.

Contactless card owners will also be able to benefit from the new cash points. They can tap their card against the machines and enter their PIN to take out cash, instead of inserting the card. Barclays claims the new machines will speed up cash withdrawal times, but also make taking out money safer and more secure.

Ashok Vaswani, head of Barclays' personal and corporate banking division, said: "These are machines that we have designed ourselves, so they're unique. These are very intelligent machines, they do a hell of a lot more than what an average ATM does."

By not inserting a card into the machine, customers avoid the risk of having their card 'skimmed' and its information stolen by a malicious device fitting to the cash point. The bank said: "Whether using your smartphone or card, it removes the risk of magnetic-card skimming and distraction fraud, as the device never needs to leave your hand."