UK – One in four card payments now contactless

A quarter of all card transactions are now made via contactless, new figures from The UK Cards Association show.

325 million purchases were made using contactless debit and credit cards in November 2016, accounting for 25 per cent of all card payments in the month. The rise in contactless payments led to a record £2.9 billion being spent using the technology in November. This is an increase of 184 per cent from a year ago when contactless spending passed £1 billion in a month for the first time.

There are now 101.8 million contactless debit and credit cards in circulation in the UK. Nine in 10 (88 per cent) contactless transactions are made using a debit card, a higher proportion than for card payments overall (78 per cent).

Richard Koch, Head of Policy at The UK Cards Association, said: “With 125 taps every second in the UK, it’s clear that people are opting for contactless when they are at the till. No longer is it just for the lunchtime sandwich, consumers are using their contactless cards wherever they go – for the grocery shop, in clothes stores, and, increasingly, for the commute too.”

The one in four milestone comes just three months after contactless reached a fifth of card transactions in August. In November 2015, 11 per cent of card transactions were contactless.
The average contactless transaction was £8.95 in November, up from £8.03 a year ago.

Source: The UK Cards Association