Three in ten UK consumers now use mobile phones and wearables for payments

Some 17.3 million people or nearly a third of adult consumers in the UK used their smartphone or smart watch to make mobile payments in stores by the end of 2020, a significant increase of 7.4 million people compared with 2019, according to UK Finance.

The London-based trade group’s 2021 Payment Markets Report also shows that the number of contactless payments made in the UK increased by 12% to a total of 9.6bn and accounted for more than a quarter (27%) of all transactions made in 2020.

In the past four years contactless payments have jumped from being just 7% of all payments to 27%.
83% of people in the UK now use contactless, with no age group or region falling below 75% usage.