Contactless spending in the UK topped £7.75bn in 2015

UK spending on contactless cards rose more than threefold in 2015 to reach £7.75bn (US$10.8bn), research from The UK Cards Association reveals, meaning that total contactless spending last year was more than double that of the preceding seven years combined.

The UK Cards AssociationIn all there were 1.05bn contactless purchases in 2015, up 228% on the previous year, with 140m contactless transactions taking place in December — equivalent to 52 every second. Around half of all debit and credit cards in circulation across the country are now contactless, a total of 79.3m cards.

“The swift increase in contactless usage continued apace last year, with nearly one in eight card transactions now using the technology,” says Graham Peacop, chief executive of The UK Cards Association.

“The popularity of contactless payments on London’s transport network is phenomenal,” adds Transport for London’s director of customer experience Shashi Verma. “We’ve already seen more than 350m journeys made using contactless, using cards from more than 80 different countries.”

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