UK Contactless: It’s A Record!

Contactless payments in the U.K. are breaking records, according to Finextra. In July, contactless spending was over three times as high as it was for the same month in 2015. The U.K. Cards Association showed that monthly contactless card spending was above the £2 billion mark and totaled £2.1 billion in July. The data showed growth of almost 10 percent. Almost 20 percent of all July card payments were made using contactless technology.

In March, U.K. contactless spending surpassed £1.5 billion, and contactless payments were £9.27 billion by July 2016.

Monthly total card spending in July was a record £53.9 billion, with debit cards accounting for most of the increase. There were 1.2 billion card transactions during the month.

The sector with the largest share of card spending from June to July was hospitality, which was up by 25 percent. A total of £2.1 billion was spent in hotels. The low value of the pound is encouraging travel and tourism. In contrast, foreign currency and traveler’s check spending on contactless cards decreased between June and July to £807 million, a drop of 14 percent. Between May and June, there was an increase of almost 30 percent in foreign currency spending by card.

Richard Koch, head of policy at the U.K. Cards Association, commented: “Consumers’ adoption of contactless continues apace, with the number of contactless payments jumping by a tenth in just one month. At over £2 billion, contactless spending in July was more than three times higher than the same period last year.”

Sectoral spending increased for retail and services. Retail reached £25.1 billion, and service sector spending increased to £28.8 billion for July, increases of £185 million and £286 million, respectively. In May, the share of total July retail sales from contactless debit and credit cards was 77.5 percent.