Contactless payments rise amid coronavirus crisis as new limit kicks in
A month on from the introduction of the £45/€50 limit in the UK and Ireland, Barclaycard has processed over seven million contactless payments above the previous limit of £30/€30, and up to the new one.
Barclaycard says that the higher limit helps prevent the spread of the coronavirus by allowing more shoppers to pay without touching card terminals or handling cash.
It also reduces the volume of people in stores by cutting down queue times. Contactless transactions are, on average, seven seconds faster than chip and PIN, and 15 seconds faster than cash, Barclaycard claims.
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The company reports that, over the past few weeks, the average value of contactless transactions has jumped from £9.28 in 2019, to just under £14. The average value of all new transactions above the previous limit of £30 is just under £36. The total amount spent using contactless on payments over £30 is currently over £264 million.
“We want to play our part in helping to prevent the spread of Covid-19, so we are delighted to have reached seven million transactions so quickly. We would like to thank our clients both large and small for working with us to make the required changes, and for promoting the new limits to consumers,” says Rob Cameron, CEO at Barclaycard Payments.
“This rapid adoption would not have been possible without them. We believe that contactless is the safest, fastest and most responsible way to pay in-store, and we encourage all consumers to take advantage of the new higher limit where possible.”
