Orange have teamed up with Barclaycard in a scheme which makes use of NFC (near field communication) technology which will see Orange customers able to make payments in selected stores and train stations simply by waving your handset near a barcode-style reader.

The pair said they will work together to launch new mobile products and services with the aim of "widespread adoption" of payments by phones by 2012. "Today you pay for things by cash or on your credit card. Tomorrow, you’ll use your mobile to buy the things you want," says head of Orange UK Tom Alexander.

This isn’t the first NFC mobile phone venture – Transport for London teamed up with Nokia, O2 and Barclays in 2007 in a trial which saw 500 handsets being able to make payments for train and tube tickets as you would with an Oyster card. However, a Barclaycard spokeswoman said that "at the moment the [only NFC] partnership [Barclaycard has] is with Orange."

The proliferation of 3G and internet-enabled handsets in the UK means that customers will be able to check their bank accounts online using their phones, allowing them to move money across and keep an eye on their finances as well as making payments; the spokeswoman also added that the two companies are also looking at introducing ‘SMS money’, so customers can ‘text’ cash to each other.

Last October, HSBC introduced a free online banking service for BlackBerry-wielding executive clients, allowing them to view real-time balances and transactions for the past seven days on sterling accounts, as well as view the balances of any foreign currency accounts.

Analyst house Juniper Research predicts that NFC-enabled handsets and mobile payments will have a large part to play in the development of mobile phones over the next three to five years.