“Three billion contactless card transactions were made in the last 12 months — nearly three times as many as the year before, according to Visa,” Steve Ranger reports for ZDNet.
“Visa’s figures show that European consumers used their cards 360 million times in April — that’s 140 transactions per second — up from 143 million transactions in April 2015,” Ranger reports. “Contactless payments now account for more than one in five face-to-face Visa payments — up from just one in 60 in 2013. Restaurants have seen the greatest year-on-year growth in contactless transactions (153 percent), said Visa, followed by general retail (146 percent), supermarkets (119 percent), and food-and-drink, including fast food (96 percent).”
“British contactless adoption grew by 300 percent, from 51 million transactions in April 2015 to 153 million in April 2016,” Ranger reports. “Visa said contactless commuting on Transport for London services is one reason for this accelerated growth, with more than 400 million contactless journeys since launch. Mobile payment services like Apple Pay have also given contactless a boost, said the company, ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: With our Apple Watches, we use Apple Pay nearly every time we pay for something at supporting retailers – which are seemingly multiplying here in the U.S.
If your country has Apple Pay, what’s your Apple Pay usage like today compared with last year?
Apple Pay is not live yet in Ireland. But a fast food counter had a display card inviting us to use Apple Pay. Staff didn’t have much of a clue.
Well, I started using Apple Pay with my Amex, the day it was available in Canada. Used it on the first day.
I was in Iceland the day Mastercard was added(Tuesday), and wowed the café waiter when I payed.
I get a thrill using Apple Pay.
I have stopped using Apple Pay because it seems it would always have an issue. The cashier would say try again, at paneras it always prompts me to hold closer when I’m essentially touching the damn terminal. In most cases pulling out my credit card was more reliable. However places which require me to use the chip port with a card, Apple Pay is quicker.