Surge in Contactless Cards in UK

Visa’s contactless cards in UK circulation passed the 8 million mark in June and will grow to 12 million by the year end, so reckons the card scheme.

Whilst much of the current growth is down to Barclays’ decision to issue contactless cards as standard for all UK customers, the other UK banks are likely to be more aggressive shortly.  We in Expense Reduction Analysts’ Banking Team expect to see most of the major High St Bank’s card acquiring arms working with retailers to encourage wider adoption.

Visa believes the recent rise in the contactless transaction limit from £10 to £15 is helping to make the cards a more attractive proposition for users and retailers.

Currently around 26,000 outlets are enabled for contactless and average transaction values are around the £4.30 mark, with evidence emerging of a surge in use among cardholders. Mark Austin, head of contactless at Visa Europe, said that in the last six months they had seen an increase of 100% in transaction volumes. So a groundswell of acceptance of the technology is growing. I will blog around that issue when I have more information.

For many of our clients its not around being an early adapter but more around recognising how customers, and potential customers, wish to carry out low value/high volume purchases. Moreover, maintaining the profitability of transactions is absolutely crucial. For my part that means ensuring that the actual real transaction costs are understood, rationalised and – where uncompetitive, challenged.