Contactless spending outstrips 2015 total

Some £9.27 billion was spent using contactless methods between January and June of this year, new figures from The UK Cards Association show, more than the total 2015 contactless spend of £7.75 billion.

There were 1.1 billion contactless transactions in the first half of the year, compared to 1.05 billion for the whole of 2015.

Contactless card payments accounted for 18 per cent of total purchases in June, the latest monthly cardexpenditure statistics show. This is in contrast to the June 2015 figure of seven per cent.

The average contactless transaction was £8.60 in both May and June of this year.

Richard Koch, head of policy at The UK Cards Association, said: “Contactless cards are firmly entrenched as the preferred way to pay for millions of consumers, who expect to be able to use them for everyday purchases.

“We anticipate the use of contactless cards will continue to increase, particularly as charities and transport operators outside London recognise the benefits this technology can bring.”

Payment card spending reached £53.1 billion in June, £0.4 billion more than in May. Both spending and the number of payments increased in the second quarter of the year, with 92 million more purchases and £1.9 billion more spending than in the first quarter of 2016.