According to Barclays Bank Contactless Cards payments accounted for around 90% of payments in the UK in 2020.
Despite shops closing down for long periods during COVID-19 lockdowns, contactless payments have actually increased by 7% in 2020 compared to 2019. There was a 30% increase in UK grocery stores.
Contactless cards payments seem to be favoured by many, which led Banks to increase limits from £10 since 2007 to £45 in 2020 per transaction.
Banking industry trade body UK Finance are looking to raise this limit further and have asked the HM Treasury for further increases hoping minimum amount will become £100.
2020 needs economic benefits and stability after the pandemic slow down, but there are security fears in such move if the raise to £100 took effect. Contactless cards do not verify the individual making the payment or whether they own the card or not. The Banking trade body should design method similar to Apple Pay, where a fingerprint is needed. But UK Finance said contactless fraud equates to just 2%.
UK Banks claim that on average a consumer is spending £1,750 in total with contactless card payments in 2020. Banks delighted to see a high number of Brits relying on contactless for store payments, safe and fast means of pay.
Stats from UK Finance data, show two-thirds of card payments in 2020 were contactless, which was a record high. UK Finance found 63% of all card transactions were made by contactless cards, compared to 61% in previous month.
Overall spending was also up 19% compared to last year.
The increase in contactless payment is spurring improvement inside the enterprise, and banks are attempting to increase contactless limits via internal IT development. A concept to add biometric authentication to contactless payments is on the way, with a Visa card that shops fingerprint information.
In October 2020, it was noted that 40% of consumers have started the use of contactless since lockdowns took effect.
Contactless payments are now the second maximum famous payment approach, with 64% of people using it more often than before.
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