The British payment association APACS reports that while opportunities to use a contactless payment option are on the rise in the UK, the average citizen has been slow to take advantage.
British banks introduced contactless payment in September of 2007, but they have issued only 340,000 contactless banking cards through the end of May 2008. In April of this year merchants deployed 6,200 contactless point-of-sale terminals, but only about 15,000 contactless transactions took place.
APACS puts part of the blame for slow adoption of the technology on the payment industry, advising that more effort should be put into letting consumers know where they can use contactless payment cards. The lack of any major retailers choosing to set up contactless terminals has also been detrimental.
Despite these obstacles, APACS continues to predict a bright picture for the British contactless payment industry. The association forecasted that 5 million contactless cards would be in circulation in the UK by the end of 2008 and that 100,000 merchant locations would accept them. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/archive-4.gif)
