Transport for London (TfL) is the fastest growing contactless Visa merchant in Europe, and in the UK for Mastercard and American Express just six months after it was launched on London Underground, tram, DLR, London Overground, buses and most National Rail services in London.
On 13 March the number of contactless taps made on a single day reached one million. Over 14 per cent of all pay as you go journeys across TfL services are now made using contactless, with over 60 million journeys made in the last six months, according to press release.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: `London was the first city in the world to offer passengers the option of getting from A to B with a simple flourish of a contactless payment card. Clearly Londoners and visitors to the capital have embraced this innovative technology – with a million card swipes taking place each day as people zip around our fine city on TfL services.’
Richard Koch, Head of Policy at The UK Cards Association, said: `With around one in seven of all contactless transactions in the UK now taking place on London transport, it’s clear that last year’s launch has given a big boost to the expansion of the technology. In fact, total contactless spending reached a record £2.32 billion in 2014 – more than double that of all the previous six years combined.’
Kevin Jenkins, MD Visa UK and Ireland, said: `We’ve seen the use of contactless terminals more than triple over the last year and believe that TfL’s adoption of the technology is a leading reason why consumers have embraced it as fast as they have. It is an excellent proof point for our world class payments infrastructure in the UK.’
Scott Abrahams, Group Head of Acceptance and Emerging Payments at MasterCard UK&I said: `This milestone for TfL shows just how quickly consumers have taken to contactless in London. This extraordinary take up is having a halo effect on other businesses in the UK who accept contactless payments. They are also seeing a significant shift in the way their customers are choosing to pay.’
Barclaycard Head of Contactless, Tami Hargreaves said: `Our data shows that the speed, ease and security of paying for travel with a contactless credit or debit card means this is fast becoming a preferred way to pay. We’re seeing a steady climb in usage each month and expect this trend to continue throughout 2015 as ‘the convenience of ‘touch-and-go’ becomes the norm.’
Contactless payments were launched on London’s buses in December 2012. It is not a requirement for customers to sign up for an online account and register their credit or debit card to travel but it is encouraged. Customers are able to view 12 months of journey and payment history while unregistered customers will only be able to access their history for the last 7 days from a one-off log in on the TfL website or via TfL Customer Services (by phoneline).
The number of Barclaycard total contactless transactions in the UK has increased by 46 per cent from Sep 14 to Feb 15 since the launch of contactless on TfL in Sep 14. Contactless journeys made on TfL account for 13 per cent of all Barclaycard contactless transactions
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
