British cash payments network PayPoint was the first of its kinds to introduce contactless card payments to the country. The company has now hit a milestone, passing 4,000 contactless POS terminals within its national network.
The PayPoint/Lloyds TSB Cardnet contactless estate is now the largest private sector network in the UK and accounts for half of all contactless terminals in the retail sector.
On the occasion of the milestone announcement, Andrew Goddard, Retail Director at PayPoint, commented on the growth of the conctactless payments industry in Britain. “Contactless is probably the fastest growing development in the retail payments sector today. It’s estimated that almost 30 million contactless cards are in circulation in the UK right now and two of the UK’s major banks announced only a couple of weekago that they plan to issue over two million contactless cards to their customers in the UK over the next year.”
“As the number of contactless cards in circulation has grown, so has the range of locations where customers can use them – in taxis, restaurants, coffee shops, sports centres, even on buses, in car parks and on vending machines. This means that customers are not only getting used to using their contactless cards but are increasingly expecting to be able to use them almost anywhere they spend their money,” he added.
He also noted the shift from cash to cards on small payments. He argued that conctactless is perfect for those small purchases typically carried out through cash, with the convenience of leaving cash at the bank. As such, PayPoint intends that its entire estate of over 7,000 retailers to which it provides a debit/credit facility with soon have contactless payment facilities.
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