70 percent of consumers in UK still do not own a contactless card

According to a survey conducted by Compass Plus, an international provider of retail banking and electronic payments software, card distribution, security issues and regional awareness are the three main challenges for contactless payments in the UK.

Findings indicate that the group with the highest number of enabled cards were those based in London. However, this figure only reached 37.2%, which means that over 60% of Londoners still do not have a contactless card. Nottingham and Sheffield had achieved 30% penetration, whilst Wellingborough, located in the London commuter-belt, fell behind at 23.5%.

After card distribution, the next barrier of card use was security. Survey shows that nearly half of all respondents viewed contactless cards as one of the least secure methods of payment (46.8%), behind mobile payments (71.3%). 64.6% of respondents in Wellingborough feel the technology is the least secure, whilst just 45 minutes away by train in London, this figure falls to 39.2%. Out of the total number respondents that did have a contactless card, just under half of them had chosen to make a tap-and-go payment within the last month.

Although nearly three-quarters of respondents stated that they know what contactless payments are (73.6%), almost half of the respondents in Wellingborough do not (43.5%) compared to just 17.3% of Londoners. This shows a distinct lack of awareness around the payment method outside of larger cities, and emphasised the trend of London being the sole hub of contactless payments.

The survey, in which more than 700 consumers answered questions about their banking and payments habits, was carried out across the UK, in Sheffield, Nottingham, Wellingborough and London.