This change in consumer behavior has significant implications for the role of cash in the UK

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Following Worldpay’s announcement on 16 Oct, today, that contactless overtook chip and PIN for in-store card payments this year, there is a comment from GlobalData.

Sam Murrant, senior analyst in Payments at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view on role of contactless cards in the UK: ‘‘Contactless card holding and usage has been on a meteoric upward trajectory in the last five years, and shows no sign of stopping. According to GlobalData’s annual Consumer Payments Insight Survey, in 2018, 62 percent of UK consumers used a contactless card regularly at the point of sale, while as recently as 2014 only 20 percent of UK consumers did so.

“This change in consumer behavior has significant implications for the role of cash in the UK because as consumers move to contactless for low-value transactions they move away from cash use. The payments industry has a vested interest in the reduction of the cash economy, and this milestone in contactless use may lead to further scaling back of ATM networks, putting more pressure on low-income consumers and small businesses that currently rely on cash.”