Contactless payments increases card purchases by 10%
04/06/2015
Purchases made by cards have increased by 10% thanks to the introduction and popularity of touch and go contactless card technology.
The introduction of contactless technology on public transport in London last September has been cited as one of the reasons for the rise. The use of the technology on London buses and trains now accounts for 11% of all contactless transactions, the UK Cards Association said.
Recently, payments made using cards have overtaken coin and notes use for the first time ever [link]. Cash used by consumers, business and financial organisations stood at 48%, and the remaining 52% was made up of electronic transactions, ranging from high-value transfers to debit card payments, as well as cheques.
The average amount paid on debit card was £43.45 in 2014 according to the UK card association. This is £1.04 less than 2013, reflecting the impact of an increasing number of lower value contactless payments, the UK Cards Association said.
At the moment, the limit of contactless payments is £20 per transaction. This will rise to £30 in September.
Richard Koch, head of policy at the association said:
"Consumers are making more than twice as many card payments every day than they were 10 years ago"
The association also said that the use of fingerprint technology on Smartphones was likely to increase the frequency of payments made without the need of a four digit pin number.
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