The total number of payments made in the UK rose by 5% in 2023, with one-third of the population now regularly using mobile phone tap payments, according to figures from UK Finance.
In 2023, the UK recorded 48.1 billion payments, up from 45.7 billion in 2022. Consumers accounted for 85% of these transactions, while businesses made up the remaining 15%. Debit cards remained the most popular payment method, constituting 51% of all payments. Notably, Faster Payments surpassed Direct Debit to become the third most utilized payment method.
After experiencing an uptick in cash transactions for the first time in a decade in 2022, cash payments declined by 7% in 2023. Cash made up just 12% of all payments last year, and nearly 40% of UK adults are noted to be living largely cashless.
In contrast, the use of contactless and mobile contactless payments continued to grow. There were 18.3 billion contactless payments in the UK throughout 2023, marking a 7% increase. These payments accounted for 38% of all transactions during the year.
Focusing on mobile contactless payments, the percentage of adults registered for services like Apple Pay and Google Pay climbed to 42%, up from 30% in 2022. Approximately one-third of users reported using mobile contactless payments at least once a month in 2023.
Adrian Buckle, head of research at UK Finance, noted, “Over the next decade, we forecast that the long-term trend of declining cash use and increasing reliance on other payment methods such as cards and Faster Payments will continue.”
Research from Marqeta corroborates these findings, revealing that 80% of Brits used contactless payments in the past week, nearly double the figure reported in the US. Additionally, more than two-thirds of UK consumers now feel confident enough to leave their physical wallets at home, and half have cut back on cash spending over the past year.