UK is contactless capital of world due to the Tube as payment limit to hit £30

Over one billion contactless Visa card payments were made in Europe alone in the last 12 months, double the  previous year, in transactions worth a total of €12.6bn (£8.9bn).

 

The UK is leading the trend, with 49.6m contactless Visa cards in circulation, an increase of 37 per cent from March 2014. 

 

Britain has more than double the number of contactless cards circulating in France.

 

UK consumers spent €330m in 52.6m contactless transactions in March 2015, out of a total of €1.6bn spent across Europe.

 

One of the reasons for this is TfL introducing contactless payment across all public transport services in London. 

 

Over 100m contactless journeys have been made since it was launched in September 2014. 

 

Poland is the next biggest user of the technology in Europe – there were 49.7m contactless purchases.

 

This growth is mirrored by increasing investment in wearable technology. Barclaycard launched their range of contactless key fobs, wristbands and stickers for the back of your mobile phone at the beginning of the month.

 

And in September the payment limit for contactless cards will be increased to £30. Visa, Europe’s largest transaction processor, has supplied 131m across the continent and says it aims to make all European payment terminals  contactless by 2020.