As many as 20 % of all payments will be contactless by 2021 , according to consulting firm RBR . In 2015 there were 120 million contactless cards in circulation , up 41 % from the year before , and 3.7 billion payments were made over the 12 month period . Contactless card acceptance is increasing faster than cards that offer the service are being issued , and Visa and Mastercard ensure that all point - of - sale cards in Europe are able to support contactless payments by 2020 .
As many as 20% of card payments will be contactless by 2021, according to consulting firm RBR. In 2015 there were 346 million contactless cards in Europe, up 41% from the year before, and 3.7 billion payments were made over the 12 month period. Contactless card acceptance is increasing faster than cards that offer the service are being issued, and Visa and Mastercard mandate that all point-of-sale terminals in Europe are able to support contactless payments by 2020.