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October 12, 2016

Apple Pay and contactless fuel surge in UK mobile payments

Visa study surveyed more than 36,000 online consumers in 19 European countries.

By Alexander Sword

The majority of British consumers have adopted mobile payments technology, with 74 percent managing money and making payments using a mobile device.

This was ahead of the 54 percent figure for European consumers overall, according to Visa’s 2016 Digital Payments Study. This is a threefold increase from the 18 percent figure recorded in the same study last year.

The study found that 59 percent of UK users use their device to transfer money to friends and family and just 45 percent use it to buy take-away meals.

43 percent purchase high-value items such as holidays and electronics on a mobile device, with 42 percent carrying out regular transactions such as paying household bills and 41 percent buying bus or train tickets.

In addition, 46 percent of 55-64 year olds currently use a mobile device for banking compared to 39 percent in 2015.

Consumers are becoming more comfortable using mobile technology to pay.

Consumers are becoming more comfortable using mobile technology to pay.

58 percent of UK respondents used contactless cards this year, up from 20 percent in 2015.

Contactless payments, which have seen rapid adoption in the UK due to the introduction of Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and the proliferation of contactless cards, were helping drive the trend, according to Kevin Jenkins, UK & Ireland Managing Director at Visa.

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“The uptake of contactless cards has made a significant impact on normalising digital payments in the minds of British consumers, regardless of age,” he said. “The near-ubiquity of contactless card usage is gradually helping everyone engage with newer ways to pay, including mobile banking.

“This data is a confirmation that the future of digital payments has arrived, with consumers across the length and breadth of the UK and Europe embracing a variety of new ways to pay. Visa sees smartphones and wearables as the beginning of a broader trend, with millions of new connected devices making it simple, safe and secure to integrate daily commerce transactions into almost any technology.”

The study surveyed more than 36,000 online consumers in 19 European countries.

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