New figures released from The UK Cards Association have revealed that contactless cards are now used to make a quarter of all card payments in the UK.

The figures show that 25 million purchases were made using contactless debit and credit cards in November 2016, and there are now over 100 million contactless card in circulation in the UK.

Richard Koch, Head of Policy at The UK Cards Association says: “With 125 taps every second in the UK, it’s clear that people are opting for contactless when they are at the till.

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.”

Contactless technology has been expanding rapidly since its introduction in 2007, with new developments, such as mobile wallets, making this type of payment easier and simpler than ever before.

Due to this rapid adoption of contactless, over 400,000 UK businesses now accept contactless payments, which is an increase of nearly 50% compared to last year.

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