Chip and pin at home

Barclays’ proposal to hand out chip and pin machines to customers to be used at home for online banking is a "good idea", according to UK payments association Apacs.

In an effort to tackle card fraud, Barclays will distribute handheld chip and pin card readers to over 500,000 online banking customers by the end of the year and Apacs said the new innovation has the ability to make "transactions safer".

Other high street banks, including the Royal Bank of Scotland are set to follow suit and the system could be used for online shopping as well as online banking in the future.

Mark Bowerman, Apacs spokesperson, highlighted the simplicity of the devices to use.

"They’re just like a small handheld calculator. You just put your chip and pin card in it and tap your four-digit pin in and then a number comes up on the display screen," he revealed.

Mr Bowerman concluded: "Any new initiative whose aim is to tackle card fraud is a good thing. So we think they are a good idea."