Average contactless payment increases 30% since new limits introduced

December 2021 card spending data from UK Finance reveals that the average amount spent per contactless card transaction rose by almost 30% following the contactless spending limit increasing from £45 to £100 in October last year.

In September, prior to the contactless limit increase, the average spend per contactless payment was £11.86, which increased to £15.30 in December.

The increased limit came into effect on 15 October, but it took a period of time for retailers and payment providers to update their systems and offer the new £100 limit, which means the increase in the average payment took time to show up.

The table below shows how the average transaction amount increased:

For 2021 as a whole, the card spending data shows a total of 13.1 billion 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.

The total value of contactless transactions in 2021 also increased, reaching £165.9 billion. 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.

Overall, There were 2 billion debit card transactions in December, 19% more than in December 2020 and 15.2% more than December 2019. The total spend of £63.5 billion was 0.5% higher than December 2020 and 11.5% higher than December 2019.

There were 349.7 million credit card transactions in December, 19.7% more than in December 2020 and 1.9% more than December 2019. The total spend of £17.3 billion was 17.9% higher than December 2020 but 5.6% lower than in December 2019.

Contactless payments accounted for 56% of all credit card and 69% of all debit card transactions.

“These figures show the continued popularity of contactless payments, as well as the fact people are making higher value payments,” says Lee Hopley, Director of Economic Insight and Research at UK Finance.

“From October last year the new £100 limit was rolled out and it gives customers greater choice about how they pay for things like their weekly shop or a tank of fuel. For 2021 as a whole there were over 13 billion contactless transactions, which was a significant increase on the previous year, and in December a record 69% of all debit card payments were contactless purchases.”

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