Pandemic Resulting in Growth of Contactless Payments in the US Despite Concerns

The US has lagged the rest of the world in the use of contactless payments and it has taken the pandemic to really cause this form of payment to take hold; Visa saw 31 million Americans use a Visa contactless card or digital wallet in March 2020, this is up 150% over March 2019; according to a Mastercard study 79% of consumers believed contactless payments to be the cleaner and safer alternative to cash; but there is still hesitation among consumers with only 55% of people aged 25-44 saying they are likely to use tap-to-pay methods of payments; there is concern about security and fraud; Jordan McKee, research director at 451 Research, said, “Security concerns have continuously registered as a top factor throttling adoption. Just one in four consumers believe that digital wallet transactions are very secure, and little more than one in three think they are more secure than traditional credit cards.” Tearsheet.

  • Peter Renton

    Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of Fintech Nexus, the world’s largest digital media company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series.