Introducing a £100 limit on contactless payments has increased tap-and-pay transactions in the UK, as consumers use the touchless checkout method to pay for higher-value items.

According to data from UK Finance for December 2021, the average amount spent per contactless card transaction increased by about 30% following the contactless spending limit from £45 to £100 in October last year.

Before the rise in the contactless transaction limit in September, the average spend per contactless payment was £11.86, increasing to £15.30 in December.

The increased limit took effect on 15 October. However, shops and payment providers took time to update their systems and offer the new £100 limit, which means that the rise in the average payment took time to manifest.

For the year 2021, card spending data indicates that 13.1 billion contactless payments were performed At an average of 415 transactions per second. This is a 36% increase over 2020 and a 52% increase over pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

The overall amount of contactless transactions climbed to £165.9 billion in 2021. This is a 46 percent increase over 2020 and a 106 percent increase over 2019.

In December 2021, the share of contactless card payments continued to grow. It reached its most significant level ever, accounting for 69% of all debit card transactions and 56% of all credit card transactions.

Lee Hopley, UK Finance's head of economic analysis and research, states: "These numbers demonstrate both the sustained popularity of contactless payments and the trend toward higher-value transactions. The new £100 limit was implemented in October last year and provides clients with more options for paying for items such as their weekly groceries or a tank of fuel."