New data from Barclays, which enables nearly half of the UK’s debit and credit card transactions, reveals that a record 91.2% of all eligible card transactions were contactless in 2022

Barclays analysed 2022 transactions to discover contactless payment surge. Image: unsplash

British universal bank Barclays announced the insights received from analysing?Barclays debit card and Barclaycard credit card transactions recorded throughout 2022. As the bank powers nearly half of the nation’s credit and debit card transactions, this data is a fair representation of general?consumer spending patterns in the UK.

According to Barclays,

• the total value of all contactless payments jumped 49.7% in 2022;
• record 91.2% of all eligible transactions were made using contactless technology;
• customers made an average of 220 contactless transactions last year, up from 180 in 2021, with a total amount of ￡3,327 per person;
• the average value per contactless transaction rose by 18.5% to ￡15.13;
• mobile contactless transactions jumped 109%, accounting for 4.1% of all contactless transactions by value;
• the fastest-growing contactless usage is observed in?Northern Ireland (+4.9%) and Scotland (+4.8%);
• contactless spending more than doubled in the hotels, resorts & accommodation category (+101.4%);
• robust growth was also registered in electronics (+97.5%), bars, pubs & clubs (+91.9%), restaurants (+90.5%) and clothing (+82.7%) retail categories.

For the second year in a row, the fastest growth in contactless usage came from the age group 65+, where the percentage of contactless users rose by 3.8%.

Besides,?a large portion of the older cohort is embracing short-term BNPL financing as well. A survey commissioned by UK-based financial education charity the Centre for Financial Capability has previously found that almost 20% of over-65-year-olds in the UK used short-term loan products in 2022 or intended to do so in the next 12 months. That almost doubles less than 10% reported in 2021.