Banks report a big increase in contactless transactions

Monthly contactless payments increase by over 200 per cent since January

More than a million contactless transactions have now been made in the UK in 2010

Contactless payments are finally begin to catch on, according to Barclays, which announced yesterday that the total number of contactless transactions in the UK this year has surpassed one million.

While the bank admitted that this marks a small percentage of overall transactions in the UK, and pales in comparison with markets such as Japan and South Korea, it argues there is reason to be optimistic about future uptake.

Barclays has reported that over 150,000 contactless transactions have been processed in September 2010 alone and there has been a 217 per cent rise in monthly contactless payments since January.

There are now 42,500 payment terminals in shops across the UK, and according to Visa, the number of Visa contactless cards in use in the UK is expected to reach 12 million by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, adoption of contactless payment among UK businesses is picking up among retailers. Subway, Pret A Manger and Caffe Nero are among those that have already installed terminals, while the Co-operative, Boots, Spar and Little Chef are either trialling the technology or rolling it out.

Stuart Neal, head of payment acceptance at Barclaycard, said: “The latest statistics on contactless payment show we are reaching a tipping point. The number of terminals has gone from 25,000 at the beginning of 2010 to 42,500 today and this is before the big grocers like Co-operative begin their rollout in earnest.

“At a time when every penny counts for retailers, contactless helps boost customer satisfaction and reduce queue abandonment.”

Research from the bank shows that UK shoppers are more impatient than ever before, with 40 per cent of us refusing to queue for longer than two minutes and two-thirds regularly abandoning purchases because of queues.

Barclays claims that contactless payment systems can help impatient shoppers by reducing transaction times by over a third in comparison to cash, with the average transaction taking just 12.5 seconds.