Contactless card payments are still on the up, but customers aren’t completely sold on them yet
Contactless payments have more than doubled in the last year from one in 16 transactions to one in seven, but consumers are still not fully sold on them, according to new research.
A survey of 2,000 adults by Defendernote indicated that almost a third (30 per cent) said bank customers should reserve the right to decide when they want to change to new contactless technology.
Nearly one in five (18 per cent) of contactless users fell victim to card fraud in the last year, Defendernote added, which was twice the amount of fraud victims who used non-contactless cards (nine per cent).
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While the vast majority of fraud victims say they’re happy with their bank’s response when they report the crime, around one in ten claim their bank still made them feel like they were at fault.
"Contactless technology has revolutionised payments and made low-cost purchases far more convenient," Morgan Rothwell, director of Defendernote, said.
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"While innovation is undoubtedly a positive thing, it's important that card providers and banks continue to make customers feel safe about embracing new technology."
The research comes after the UK Cards Association announced yesterday that payments using contactless cards hit a record £1.5bn in March 2016, up £431.1m in the same month last year. This equates to almost 180m purchases, equating to around 67 per second.
Unstoppable momentum
Earlier in May, card company Visa announced it recorded three billion contactless transactions in Europe over the past year.
Meanwhile, the amount we spent on contactless cards trebled to £7.8bn in 2015, with the payment method proving particularly popular with London commuters.
As of today, river commuters will also be able to use contactless cards to pay for journeys on the Thames Clippers River Bus, the latest branch of Transport for London to be accessible through the payment system.
"It took almost eight years for monthly contactless spending to reach half a billion pounds — now it’s grown by the same amount in just four months," Richard Koch, head of policy at the UK Cards Association, said about the figures released yesterday.
"This dramatic rise shows that paying with contactless is now second nature for millions of consumers who see it as an alternative to cash.
"Contactless cards are already being used to pay for travel and to donate to charity and as the technology evolves, we will see even more environments where contactless will enable fast, easy and secure payments."