Visa Europe figures show that UK contactless card purchases were up nearly fourfold in 2013.
The popularity of contactless cards is rising fast, 94.3m contactless purchases were made in the UK in 2013 compared to under 25m in 2012.
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Additionally the number of contactless terminals has risen by almost 200% to over 300,000 in 2013.
The average UK purchase value in 2013 was £6.09 ($10.16) compared to the Europe wide average of 9.18 ($12.79).
"We’ve seen impressive growth across the board on the amount of Visa contactless cards within the UK and the overall purchases and spend," comments Sandra Alzetta, Executive Director at Visa Europe.
"Spend has risen to over £618m in 2013, with £82m being spent in December of last year alone."
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By GlobalDataVisa Europe has doubled the availability of mobile payment services across Europe in the past 12 months.
The UK is the second biggest user of contactless payment in Europe only to Poland where 158.7m purchases were made in 2013.
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