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Debit card payments have overtaken cash use for the primary time, new figures present, as contactless expertise takes a agency maintain on day-to-day spending.
A complete of 13.2 billion debt card payments had been made final yr, a rise of 14% on the earlier yr, in response to banking commerce physique UK Finance.
That outstripped the 13.1 billion cash payments made, as the usage of notes and cash dropped by 15%.
An estimated three.4 million folks hardly used cash in any respect throughout the yr.
The annual report into the way in which shoppers make payments revealed that the UK is a nation of spontaneous spenders. Only 15% of the 38.eight billion payments made within the UK in 2017 had been for normal payments and commitments.
These purchases have more and more been made utilizing contactless expertise, when playing cards are positioned on or close to a reader with out the necessity to enter a private four-digit quantity.
The frequency of contactless payments nearly doubled in a yr to five.6 billion payments final yr. This was mostly utilized in supermarkets, however card suppliers say that public transport and automobile parking have additionally turn into common spots for the usage of contactless playing cards.
In 2017, contactless playing cards accounted for 15% of all payments, however UK Financewhich represents the main bankshas predicted this proportion to rise to 36% a decade later. The development of on-line procuring and card acceptance amongst smaller merchants would result in additional development in debit card use normally, UK Finance stated.
Young shoppers, aged between 25 and 34, had been almost definitely to make contactless payments. Those who shunned cash completely had been additionally almost definitely to be amongst this age group.
On the flipside, there have been 2.2 million individuals who predomitly used cash when procuring final yr.
Debit card use could have overtaken cash use quicker than the trade anticipated, however notes and cash nonetheless had an essential position to play, in response to Stephen Jones, chief government of UK Finance.
"The choice of payment options available in the UK is allowing people to choose to pay the way that best suits them," he stated.
"But we are far from becoming a cash-free society and despite the UK transforming to an economy where cash is less important than it once was, it will remain a payment method that continues to be valued and preferred by many."
Adam Herson, a director at Barclaycard Mobile Payments, urged that card expertise would more and more be present in something from watches to different "wearable" gadgets.
"More recently, we have seen a surge in the use of wearable and mobile payments, creating new, exciting opportunities for both shoppers and brands. Consumers are increasingly able to match their payment accessory or device to their lifestyle or fashion taste. We expect this increase in popularity to continue for the foreseeable future," he stated.
However, shoppers vulnerability to failures in expertise have been made clear in current IT issuesmost notably the shutdown in Visa companies following a hardware failure which left European prospects unable to make some payments for a number of hours.
At the time, earlier this month, Visa apologised and stated the outage was not right down to "unauthorised access or a cyber attack".