Contactless payments rising as TfL and retailers drive adoption
CONTACTLESS payments on the high street jumped nearly 300 per cent last year, according to figures from Visa yesterday.
Visa Europe’s director of contactless Mark Austin said that the 94.3m payments had been spurred by Transport for London’s use of contactless on buses last year and the increasing numbers of retailers installing terminals.
Adoption from the likes of high street giants Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Starbucks has led to over 300,000 contactless terminals being installed in the high street. Last year Pret A Manger said that over 20 per cent of its sales are now made with contactless cards.
“We’ve seen impressive growth across the board on the amount of Visa contactless cards within the UK and the overall purchases and spend,” said Visa Europe executive director Sandra Alzetta.
“Spend has risen to over £618m in 2013, with £82m being spent in December of last year alone.”
Britain’s use of contactless still trails that of Poland whose rapid adoption of the payment method led to 159m payments last year.