Mobile payments taking off for contactless commuting

The London transport network will be providing an uplift for mobile payment market with one-in-ten contactless journeys on London’s buses and tubes.

The latest figures from Transport for London detail over one billion journeys on the transit network using contactless cards, with almost £2 billion spent by commuters since the cards were first accepted in 2012.

In total, 40% of all pay as you go journeys are now made using contactless. This is up from 25% in early 2016.

The arrival of contactless on London’s transport network is widely viewed as having a galvanising effect on uptake across the general population. The latest figures from Barclaycard suggest that half of all in-store card payments up to £30 across the UK are now made by contactless. 

The growth is having a knock-on effect to mobile tap-and go as well, says Barclaycard which has recorded a 90% rise in the amount spent through its Android app through 2017. Similar uptake is also reported by TfL, which says that more than 31m journeys have been made by commuters wielding smart phones during the past year.