UK consumers’ preference for electronic payments and contactless transactions
30.3 million cards are now in circulation in the UK with 293,600 terminals installed.
continued to increase in 2013 as Visa Europe announces that spending with UK Visa credit, debit, commercial and prepaid cards increased by 9.2% to £445 billion.
Spending by UK cardholders with Visa debit increased by 9.3% on the previous year. Debit payments account for over 80% of Visa Europe’s business in the UK. More than £1 in every £3 spent in the UK is now spent using Visa.
Growth was also strong in other core areas of the Visa Europe business, with spending on commercial cards increasing by 18.1% and on prepaid cards by 42.8%.
However, the main headline is the UK’s partiality for online purchases which was unabated in 2013 with £110 billion spent at UK merchants in the year to September 2013, which equates to £3,488 being spent every second with a Visa card. This is an increase of 18% on the previous year at UK merchants. Over 25% of Visa Europe’s UK business now takes place online.
2013 was also an exceptional year for the roll-out and take up of contactless payments with Visa Europe exceeding its targets in the UK for the distribution of contactless cards and the installation of terminals. Some 30.3 million cards are now in circulation with 293,600 terminals installed.
Access to the payment infrastructure and education about contactless meant that usage soared resulting in contactless transactions increasing four fold in the year to September 2013, with £461.6 million spent with Visa contactless cards up from £96.7 million in the previous year.
This early mobile payment success, the growth of contactless and the roll-out of V.me by Visa signifies that Visa Europe is on track to realise its prediction that 50% of Visa transactions will made be made through a mobile device by 2020.
“We will scale-up our next generation payment solutions to move in pace with the rapid adoption of new technologies and, more particularly, the growth of mobile and digital commerce,” comments Nicolas Huss, CEO, Visa Europe.
“We will apply a disciplined commercial focus to operate a leaner, more agile company. We will work constructively with regulators to arrive at mutually beneficial solutions. And we will work more flexibly to meet the needs of our customers and partners across Europe.”
European results
There are now 500m Visa cards in Europe. Additionally, €1 in every €6.50 being spent in Europe is now spent on a Visa card. In the year to September 2013, the total expenditure on Visa cards reached €2 trillion (€2,000,000,000,000), while point-of sale spend increased by 8.5%.
E-commerce continued to grow at exceptional speed in 2013, with a 20% year-on-year rise. This coincides with Visa Europe’s launch of V.me by Visa, the first pan-European digital wallet service to be offered by banks and financial institutions, in four countries – France, Spain, Poland and the UK.
Contactless has passed the tipping point in many markets and is growing at lightning pace across Europe. Contactless payment is now available in twice as many countries as this time last year while transactions have nearly tripled and terminals almost doubled. At the same time, 62 mobile contactless projects are now live or planned to launch across Europe.
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