REVEALED: These are the top UK cities embracing cashless spending in response to COVID-19

A new report by UK merchant payment provider, Dojo, part of the Paymentsense brand, reveals a sharp increase in the usage of contactless payments methods by consumers, accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.

With the BBC reporting cash refusal ‘creeping into UK economy’, Dojo analysed their unique transaction data, amassed over the course of the pandemic, 2019-2021, to find out which UK cities used contactless and digital payments the most, and had the highest year-on-year (YoY) increase.

The findings have been listed and the UK’s Capital of Contactless Card Payments is ready to be revealed.

York on top with the highest % uptake of contactless credit and debit card payments

The study reveals the city of York in North Yorkshire is the UK’s Card Payment Capital with an exponential increase in the use of contactless over the pandemic. A huge 84% of payments in the historic city were made by contactless cards over the last year with a significant YoY increase of 10.6% from pre-pandemic levels.

The port city of Plymouth, in Devon, was second with 82% of payments proving contactless (also a +10.6% YoY increase) followed by London, boasting a 10.4% YoY increase of cash-free transactions.

Hull, the most likely city to opt for tech-savvy Apple & Google Pay

A staggering 84% of Brits are estimated to own a smartphone. So, with COVID-19 causing some businesses to refuse cash, digital contactless payment technologies like Apple and Google pay are on the up. Hull leads with a monumental YoY increase of 646.8%, spurred by a 4.67% increase between 2020 and 2021.

Jon Knott, Head of Customer Insight at Dojo said:

“The COVID-19  pandemic has changed everyone’s lives in a number of ways that we could have never predicted even 13 months ago.

Smaller businesses that were previously cash-only have rapidly changed how they operate to meet consumer demands and keep pace with larger competitors, so they don’t lose custom.

It’s clear that the huge upturn in the use of contactless technology is speeding up the UK’s shift towards a cashless economy, but at a rate far beyond what anyone was expecting pre-coronavirus.

With consumers now having embraced the ease and practicality of going contactless and with the introduction of the £100 contactless card limit set to launch this year we expect to see these changes stick.

High res images can be found here and please let me know if you have any questions at all.

For more information please see the full report here.

Best,

Matt

ENDS

About Dojo:

Dojo is part of Paymentsense – a payments provider specialising in helping independent businesses take payments, effortlessly. Based in the UK, and with offices in London, Bristol, Hull, Belfast and Dublin, Paymentsense currently enables over 80,000 businesses to process more than £12 bn worth of card transactions annually.

For more information visit https://dojo.tech/

Download infographics here

Methodology

Dojo analysed anonymised card transaction data from their customer base to show both contactless transactions as well as Apple/Google/Samsung Pay transactions across the UK and how they have increased over the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected from 2019-2021 to show a year on year increase. Note, all Apple, Google and Samsung Pay contactless data in this report refers to payments over £45 only.

Sources
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55717933

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