Contactless payments used for 1bn UK purchases in 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/26/contactless-cards-purchases-spending

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UK shoppers made more than 1bn contactless purchases on credit and debit cards in 2015, and used the technology for almost one in eight of all card transactions in December.

An increase in the amount that could be spent without using chip and pin, from £20 to £30, and growing awareness of the technology by consumers pushed spending up by 233% over the year, to £7.75bn.

Contactless payments were introduced in the UK in 2007 for low-value transactions and originally had a limit of £10. Despite rising by 54p in December, the average transaction is still below that original threshold, at £8.57.

The figures from the UK Cards Association show that the value of contactless spending in 2015 was more than double that in the previous seven years combined.

The group, which represents card providers, said 79m cards now featured the technology for contactless payments, around half of all debit and credit cards.

In December, contactless spending hit £1.2bn, a rise of 17% on November’s figure, and there were 140m transactions – equivalent to 52 every second.

Public transport users in London have been behind a large number of transactions, with Transport for London reporting in 2015 that more than 1m journeys a day were being paid for using contactless.

Rachel Springall, from finance website Moneyfacts.co.uk, said: “The popularity of contactless payments has been boosted by the influx of cards that are now enabled with the function, with many providers now issuing these cards as standard.

“Many shoppers will also notice that more retailers are offering terminals that have a contactless option, which speeds up payment at the till.”

Some concerns have been raised about the security of contactless cards, with the Guardian revealing in December that some purchases could be made after a card was reported lost of stolen, and consumer group Which? finding that card details could be taken and used online by fraudsters.

The UK Cards Association said a total of £622bn was spent on credit and debit cards over the year in 13.4bn transactions. This compared with 12bn transactions worth a total of £574bn in 2014.