Contactless payment value soars after limit is loosened
The average contactless payment has surged almost 30 per cent in value in the past six months after the limit on payments was hiked from £45 to £100 in October.
Prior to the limit rise in September the average payment was £11.86, which then rose to £15.30 in December after the rise came into effect, according to data from UK finance.
The rise in average spend came amid a continued decline in cash usage and a surge in contactless payments last year.
A total of 13.1bn contactless payments were made in the year – equivalent to 415 transactions every second – up 36 per cent on 2020 and 52 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
The value of payments meanwhile surged to £165.9bn, up from £80.5bn.
Director of Economic Insight and Research at UK Finance, Lee Hopley said the surge showed no sign of slowing.
“From October last year the new £100 limit was rolled out and it gives customers greater choice about how they pay for things like their weekly shop or a tank of fuel,” he said.
“For 2021 as a whole there were over 13 billion contactless transactions, which was a significant increase on the previous year, and in December a record 69 per cent of all debit card payments were contactless purchases.”
The pandemic has quickened a longer trend in the decline of cash, with cash payments falling from around 60 per cent to 17 per cent in 2020.