In September, prior to the contactless limit increase, the average spend per contactless payment was £11.86, which increased to £15.30 in December.

The increased limit came into effect on 15 October, but it took a period of time for retailers and payment providers to update their systems and offer the new £100 limit, which means the increase in the average payment took time to show up.

In September last year, the average contactless transaction amount stood at £11.86, a month later it crept up to £12.27, while in November it rose to £13.57. In December, it increased to £15.30.

For 2021 as a whole, the card spending data shows a total of 13.1 billion contactless payments were made in the year – equivalent to 415 transactions every second. This is up 36% compared with 2020 and 52% higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

The total value of contactless transactions in 2021 also increased, reaching £165.9bn. This is 46% higher than in 2020 and 106% more than 2019.

The proportion of card payments that were contactless continued to increase in December 2021 and reached its highest recorded level, accounting for 69% of all debit card transactions and 56% of all credit card transactions.

Lee Hopley, director of economic insight and research at UK Finance, said: “These figures show the continued popularity of contactless payments, as well as the fact people are making higher value payments.

“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. 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.”