Is A Billion Contactless Payments A Lot Or A Little?

Contactless payments — particularly in Europe — are catching on. But by just how much depends on what region and what data you’re looking at.

New figures released yesterday (July 6) by Visa Europe show that its cardholders have made 1.1 billion contactless payments in the past year. That’s more than €12.6 billion (around $13.9 billion), which has been made from the more than 130 million Visa contactless cards in the market. 

In the release, Visa Europe specifically points to March 2015, when spending on contactless payment cards hit €1.6 billion (about $1.8 billion), a threefold increase when compared to the year prior. The U.K. is leading the way for Visa Europe in terms of how many contactless cards have been issued. In the U.K., there are 49.6 million cards that can be used at 410,000 terminals. France follows with 20.3 million cards across 405,000 terminals. 

Interestingly enough, while the U.K. had the most contactless cards, Spain has the most terminals, according to Visa Europe’s data. Poland takes third place with 14.5 million cards and 354,000 terminals, and Spain has 11.5 million cards and 593,000 terminals, according to that same data.

“Contactless momentum continues to build as more and more people discover it’s often the quickest and most convenient way to pay for everyday things. Across Europe, usage levels have soared, with more than 1 billion contactless transactions made by Visa cardholders in the last 12 months alone,” Sandra Alzetta, executive director of core products at Visa Europe, said in a company news release.

“The popularity of contactless will only increase in [the] future as we experience the next generation of digital payments, where the simplicity and convenience is extended to mobile and wearable NFC technology. We’re proud to have led the way in establishing contactless payments in Europe and excited to be at the forefront as contactless payments become increasingly available to everyone,” she continued.

Visa Europe has 131 million contactless cards in circulation in Europe, which the company claims are “used regularly at over 2.6 million contactless terminals.” In five years’ time, the company said that all Visa POS terminals in the continent will be compatible with contactless payments. Visa Europe also projects that most Visa account holders will be equipped to use contactless payments from a device in that same time frame.

In Visa Europe’s release about the data, it attributed the contactless payment growth to the success with London’s public transport, citing one key stat: “There have been more than 100 million contactless journeys since launch (85 million of which have been using Visa cards).” 

And in the time between March 2014 and March 2015, the amount of contactless cards in general increased by more than 37 percent in the U.K. alone. 

Looking past Visa Europe’s figures, according to data published by the European Central Bank, the total number of non-cash payments in the EU, across the different types of instruments, increased by 6 percent to 100 billion in 2013 compared with the previous year. Card payments accounted for 44 percent of all transactions, while credit transfers accounted for 27 percent and direct debits for 24 percent.

Therefore, 44 percent of 100 billion is 44 billion. If of those 44 billion, 1 billion were made with contactless, that would be approximately 2.2 percent. 

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To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.

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