Contactless payment value soars after limit is loosened
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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.