Are UK Consumers Clueless About Contactless Cards?

By Chanel Smith, Editor, EMEA

Payments processors in the UK may be getting slightly ahead of themselves with contactless card initiatives. According to a new study conducted by retail banking and ePayments software provider, Compass Plus, only one-in-10 British consumers reported to making a purchase using a contactless card in the last month, and 40 percent don’t even know what NFC payments technology is.

Compass surveyed more than 160 residents in the UK and inquired about their payment and banking practices. In effort to highlight acute differences between industry expectations and consumer reality, Compass compared the results with a separate survey that asked industry professionals about their view of payment schemes.

Maria Nottingham, marketing officer at Compass Plus, commented in a press release by the company, “Tracking the difference in opinion between industry experts and the general public has been made an interesting experiment. The survey we conducted clearly illustrates that expectations between the two differ considerably, and if we are to encourage the mass adoption of new payment channels we need to educate the public on what is available and assure them that their payments are secure.”

Here are some of the significant points that the survey comparison revealed:

Consumers Doubt Security Measures

The survey asked consumers which form of payments were most secure, and 34 percent said they thought contactless cards were at the bottom of the list.  Twenty-six percent of participants said using a debit card to purchase online was the second least secure, and mobile payments came in third place at 24 percent. Interestingly, the majority of respondents, at 57 percent, reported that cash was the most secure payment option. Thirty-four percent felt safe paying with credit cards at high-street shops, and 32 percent said debit cards were also safe to use.

Small Numbers Adopt Contactless

The survey asked consumers about recent monetary behavior and found that 93 percent said they had withdrawn money from a cash point in the last month. Eighty-seven percent said they used bankcards for online shopping, and 86 percent on high-street. Only 9 percent of consumers said they were using innovative payment services to make purchases in the last month. Moreover, just 4 percent admitted to using a mobile phone for payment.

Good News For The Industry

The one area that did seem to be in sync with payment professionals and consumers was the future mass adoption of mobile payments. Forty-two percent of the industry and 31 percent of UK consumers said they believed mobile payments would become pervasive in the next two or three years.

Alas, there is still hope.

To read the full report at Compass click here.