British shoppers trebled their use of contactless payment cards in 2014, bringing total contactless spending to £2.32 billion.
The UK Cards Association said on Friday that debit and credit cards accounted for 75.8 per cent of retail sales in Britain.
Contactless card users can make a ‘one-tap’ transaction for purchases up to £20, meaning that such transactions are being used for smaller purchases that might have traditionally been paid for in cash.
Executives in the financial services industry expect cash purchases to continue to decline as alternative forms of payment become more convenient, Reuters reported.
Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all payment card transactions in Britain, said on Friday that contactless spending with its cards had risen 115 per cent in value and 108 percent in volume in 2014, with the highest usage rate in London. In the capital, contactless cards accounted for three out of every 10 eligible transactions.
Whitepapers
Related reading
Open Banking: Going from regulatory mandate to global scale
Building the infrastructure to make open banking possible Open banking means different things to different people, but one thing is sure: it ... read more
Pandemic boosts P2P platform use
By Shari Krikorian, senior vice president, Mastercard
Tech innovation vital for mitigating airline crisis
The airline and travel sector’s coronavirus crisis may spark tech innovation in the industry, market participants predict. Customers will look to travel ... read more
Bank of England slashes interest rates amid coronavirus outbreak
By Aaran Fronda The Bank of England (BoE) has announced an emergency cut to the base interest rate from 0.75 percent to ... read more
