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Contactless card use rising fast in the UK

Britons spent 2.5 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) using contactless cards in first half of 2015, exceeding the contactless total for all of 2014.

September 3, 2015

Britons spent more than 2.5 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) using contactless cards in the first half of 2015, a year over year increase of nearly 8 percent (from 2.32 billion pounds in 2014) new data from The UK Cards Association shows.

Contactless spending rose from 287 million pounds ($438) per month in January to 567 million pounds ($865 million) in June, the payment cards industry trade body said in a press release. During this time, Brits spent with contactless cards between than in the whole of 2014.

"The pace of growth we are seeing in contactless is getting ever faster as we rely less and less on cash," said Mark Barnett, president of MasterCard UK and Ireland. "Consumers enjoy the speed and convenience of tapping to pay. We expect this upward trend to persist with consumers continuing to migrate to contactless card payments and increasingly to mobile payments ... "

As of Sept. 1, the spending limit for contactless purchases is pegged at 30 pounds ($45.76), up from the previous limit of 20 pounds ($30.51). Over the next few weeks, payment terminals will be updated to the new limit, the association said.

"The growth in contactless payments shows people want to use contactless cards and increasing the limit gives customers even more opportunities to pay in this way," said Graham Peacop, CEO of The UK Cards Association.

U.K. consumers hold more than 69 million contactless payment cards in total, more than 9.3 million of which were issued to consumers between January and June. Fraud on contactless cards is extremely low, at less than one penny for every hundred pounds spent, the organization said.