Consumers not excited about contactless payment cards

According to figures from APACS, the UK payments association, consumers have not been won over by contactless payment cards.

The cards allow consumers to buy small-ticket items on a credit or debit card without actually having to hand any plastic over or enter a pin.

The cards have already been launched in London but Apacs show that just 15,000 transactions were made in April across the 6,200 contactless point-of-sale terminals, meaning each terminal was used less than 3 times a month.

Retailers in the UK who have terminals include major high-street names such as Coffee Republic, Krispy Kreme and Books Etc.

The big banks are proceeding with plans to make them more widely available with Barclaycard issuing more than one million contactless cards this year.

Cash machine provider, Bank Machine, has raised security fears about the contactless cards and believe they could be at risk of fraud.

Banks are promoting the cards in an effort to stop the use of cheques, which are still very popular with consumers, particularly the over 55s. The 18-24 year olds use cheques on average 8 times each year. Banks also prefer cards to cheques as they involve lower costs for them.

Cheques are gradually being phased out and supermarket giant, Tesco, has not accepted them since March.

Cheques are most widely used in the northern regions of both England and Scotland.

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