A quarter of all card transactions are now contactless payments, new figures from The UK Cards Association show.
325 million purchases were made using contactless debit and credit cards in November 2016, accounting for 25% of all card payments in the month.
The rise in contactless payments led to a record £2.9 billion being spent using the technology in November. This is an increase of 184% from a year ago when contactless spending passed £1 billion in a month for the first time.
There are now 101.8 million contactless debit and credit cards in circulation in the UK. Nine in 10 (88%) contactless transactions are made using a debit card, a higher proportion than for card payments overall (78%).
“With 125 taps every second in the UK, it’s clear that people are opting for contactless when they are at the till,” says Richard Koch, Head of Policy at The UK Cards Association.
“No longer is it just for the lunchtime sandwich, consumers are using their contactless cards wherever they go – for the grocery shop, in clothes stores, and, increasingly, for the commute too.”
The one in four milestone comes just three months after contactless reached a fifth of card transactions in August. In November 2015, 11% of card transactions were contactless.
The average contactless transaction was £8.95 in November, up from £8.03 a year ago.
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