UK Finance, the collective voice for the banking and finance industry, has released a new report which highlights some startling growth in the adoption and usage of contactless card payments, following the introduction of the increased limit from £45 to £100 on 15th October 2021.

The report highlights that although it took a period of time, for retailers and payment providers to update their systems to offer the increased limit, the data shows a steady increase in the average transaction value with every passing month and an increase of nearly 30% since the £100 limit came into play.

Average Transaction Value via Contactless Payments by Month:

September: £11.86
October: £12.27
November: £13.57
December: £15.30

For 2021 overall, card spending via contactless leaped 36% on 2020 and is now showing 52% more adoption than 2019, pre-pandemic. The report also states that 13.1 billion contactless payments were made in the year – equivalent to 415 transactions every second!

With more transactions being processed by contactless, obviously the monetary value processed has also surged with the total value of contactless transactions in 2021 reaching £165.9 billion, 46% higher than in 2020 and 106% more than, pre-COVID 2019.

Gala Technology Commercial Director, Steven Jones commented ‘It is no real surprise to see the continued adoption of contactless payments, especially as this became a necessity throughout the pandemic.

Data shows that in December 2021 more contactless payments were processed than ever before, accounting for 69% of all debit card transactions and 56% of all credit card transactions.’

Lee Hopley - Director of Economic Insight - UK Finance

Lee Hopley, director of economic insight and research at UK Finance, concurred 'These figures show the continued popularity of contactless payments, as well as the fact people are making higher value payments. 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 per cent of all debit card payments were contactless purchases.'