Nordic countries record surge in contactless payments during pandemic

Contactless payments have been encouraged by health authorities and merchants to limit physical contact among consumers during the pandemic. The result has been that behavioural changes anticipated to take years have happened in mere months.

The proportion of in-store purchases made using contactless cards in the Nordic countries has risen from 57% in January this year to 75% in late October, an increase “in part driven by concerns around the potential spread of Covid-19,” regional payments processor Nets reports.

In Norway in January 2020, only 35% of payments were made contactless; by late October, it had more than doubled to 77% – overtaking Sweden and Finland in the process.

“During just one week of the Norwegian lockdown, the share of contactless payments jumped six points,” the company said.

In Sweden, where authorities took a less restrictive path to fight the pandemic, use of contactless payment has shown steadier growth during the year, rising from 44% in January to 60% of all in-store card payments by late October.

Denmark is leading the pack with around 86% of all card payments in physical shops made contactlessly in the last week of October.

Norway is second with a share of 77%, with Finland third at 70%.

Norway increased the transaction limit for contactless payments without using a PIN to NOK500 (US$55.48) and Sweden doubled its limit to SEK400 (US$46.38) earlier in the pandemic.

The contactless transaction limit in Denmark has been DKK350 (US$55.71) for the past two years and in Finland it remains at EUR50 (US$59.28), the limit set by EU law.