Orange and Barclaycard have announced a partnership that'll let customers use their mobiles to pay for goods and stay in control of their money. The two companies are describing this as "the biggest revolution in payments since plastic cards were introduced over 40 years ago". One of the innovations will be contactless (Near-Field Communication) payments that let consumers pay by touching their phone against a reader, rather like London Underground's 'Oyster' cards. Full details will be revealed in the next few months. Barclaycard already has more than 1.5 million NFC-enabled cards in circulation, with this figure expected to reach 6 million by the end of 2009. [Press release; Orange NFC development]