- New report shows 80% of people aged 85 to 95 will pay contactless by 2023
- 93% of in-store card payments up to £100 were contactless by 2023
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Data suggests that more people over 65 than ever are using contactless payments.
Today, 80 per cent of people aged 85 to 95 pay contactless, a new report from Barclaycard shows.
For the third year in a row, the fastest growth in contactless use was among people 65 and older.
A record 93.4 per cent of all in-store card transactions of up to £100 were made via tap and pay in 2023, cementing it as the UK’s most popular payment method.
Convenient: 93% of all in-store card purchases up to £100 were made contactless for ease and convenience.
Customers also spend more on average, the report shows.
Average spend per customer last year was £3,623, up 8.9 per cent year on year, as customers bought more expensive items more frequently. The average purchase cost £15.69, up 3.8 per cent on last year.
When it comes to payments over £100, chip and pin is the preferred form of payment across all age demographics, followed by cash.
Younger customers prefer to use mobile payments and a quarter of people aged 18 to 34 prefer to use their phone.
Mobile payments have no upper limit for contactless payments using two-factor authentication.
In contrast, only 3 percent of people over 75 prefer mobile payment to using a physical card.
Some younger shoppers now choose not to carry their card when leaving home.
More than one in five people aged 18 to 34 regularly leave their wallet behind when shopping and prefer to pay with their smartphone.
A knock-on effect of the increased use of contactless payments is that almost a fifth of Britons admit they also have trouble remembering their PIN when asked.
Automotive was the category that saw the largest increase in contactless payments in 2023, up 28.8 percent from 2022, followed by electronics, which saw a 19.9 percent increase in contactless spending growth in 2023 compared to 2022.
| Category | Contactless spending growth in 2023 vs. 2022 |
|---|---|
| Retail | 9.7% |
| Clothes | 6.2% |
| Grocery | 10.4% |
| Food and beverage specialist | 9.3% |
| supermarkets | 10.6% |
| Familiar | 11.1% |
| electronics | 19.8% |
| Furniture stores | 11.5% |
| Home improvement and DIY | 9.9% |
| General Retailers | 8.9% |
| General Retailers and Catalogs | 18.4% |
| Department store | 9.9% |
| discount stores | 2.1% |
| Specialty retailers | 8.4% |
| Pharmacy, Health and Beauty | 9.2% |
| Sports and outdoor activities | 7.2% |
| Other specialty retailers | 7.8% |
| Hospitality and Leisure | 11.5% |
| Eat and drink | 10.3% |
| Bars, pubs and nightclubs | 8.9% |
| Restaurants | -2.9% |
| Takeaway and fast food | 14.9% |
| Other food and drink | 11.5% |
| Entertainment | 12.1% |
| Hotels, resorts and accommodation | 17.6% |
| Travel | 16.3% |
| Public transport | 11.4% |
| Other trips | 19.4% |
| Other | 9.8% |
| Fuel | 14.6% |
| Motoring | 28.8% |
| Other services | 21.9% |
| Source: Barclaycard Contactless Trends Report 2024 |
Barclays launched the UK’s first contactless card, the ‘Barclaycard OnePulse’, in September 2007.
At the time, the spending limit per payment was just £10. It was first rolled out to around 22,000 TfL network payment terminals and around 6,000 retailers.
The first retailers to embrace contactless technology were cafes and fast food outlets, including EAT and Pret A Manger.
In 2013, annual contactless transactions reached £1 billion for the first time and further expansion occurred the following year when TfL began accepting contactless cards at station barriers, allowing customers to skip the queues at ticket machines.
Ten years after its launch, in 2017, three in five Britons chose to pay contactless, representing a total spend of £60 billion.
In 2020, 88.6 per cent of all eligible payments in the UK were made contactless, with adoption boosted by Covid restrictions and the contactless limit rising from £30 to £45.
Karen Johnson, head of retail at Barclays, said: “Since we rolled out contactless payments in the UK in 2007, it has firmly established itself as the UK’s favorite payment method, thanks to its speed and convenience.
“In 2024, we expect to see a greater shift toward mobile wallet payments as more brick-and-mortar businesses integrate the technology into their customer experience.”