The value of the average contactless payment made in the UK has risen by 30% since the country increased its contactless spending limit from £45 (US$59) to £100 (US$132) in October last year, according to figures from UK Finance.

The figures show that the average spend per contactless payment in the UK rose from £11.86 (US$15.63) in September to £12.27 (US$16.17) in October, then £13.57 (US$17.88) in November and reached £15.30 (US$20.16).in December.

“For 2021 as a whole, the card spending data shows a total of 13.1bn 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,” UK Finance’s Card Spending update reports.

“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.”

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