Chart of the week: tap and pay takes off

It's easy and convenient to tap and pay. No wonder, then, that contactless card transactions have rocketed in recent years 470 million transactions took place in June alone, notes Hugo Greenhalgh on FT.com.

In the first half of 2017 we spent £23bn in this way, almost as much as the £25bn for the whole of 2015. There are now 111 million contactless cards in issue, compared with 250,000 in 2007, when only 2% of them were used to tap and pay. Last year overall card payments (chip-and-pin and contactless) overtook cash for the first time. A third of card transactions were contactless.

Viewpoint

"Brexiteers are deeply sceptical ofstate action [yet] confronted with the most difficult administrative problem the British state has ever been lumbered with, [they] become optimistic to the point of cavalier about the capacity of the state... these newdirigistessuddenly regard the government as entirely capable of replacing four decades of European economic, social and environmental regulation without difficulty Such is their uncharacteristic faith in the benign hand of Whitehall that, through the Repeal Bill process, they are even prepared to put all power in the hands of ministers and bureaucrats to make regulations by edict."

Try 6 free issues of MoneyWeek today

Get unparalleled financial insight, analysis and expert opinion you can profit from.

Start your trial

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Philip Collins, Prospect