Contactless tech gets Covid-19 boost and emerges as big 2020 winner
The coronavirus outbreak has cemented contactless as the preferred way to make UK in-store payments, according to Barclaycard.
Its research has contactless accounting for 88.6% of all eligible card transactions (that is, up to £30 prior to April and £45 after April) in 2020.
The total value of these transactions grew by 7% last year as many retailers heavily promoted contactless as the safest way to buy things during the coronavirus outbreak and, in some cases, declined the use of banknotes and coins.
The average value of payments increased by 29% following the introduction of the £45 limit.
Users made an average of 141 payments in 2020, worth a total of £1,640. Whilst over-65s were most likely to embrace the technology for the first time last year.
Raheel Ahmed, Head of Consumer Products, says: “We are proud to be playing our part in helping to prevent the spread of coronavirus, and we are delighted to see that even more Brits are relying on contactless to make in-store payments.”
“We believe that contactless is the safer, faster and most responsible way to pay in-store, and we encourage all consumers to take advantage of it wherever possible.”
Tesco’s Pay+
Earlier this week, we reported that Tesco’s Pay+ mobile payment app, which launched in 2017, surpassed £1 billion in payments shortly before Christmas.
The offering now has 1.2 million registered users and a transaction using the app takes place, on average, every 1.4 seconds.
Shoppers can use it to make contactless payments up to £250.
