The study also revealed that 40% felt that a service like Apple Pay, the only real option currently available in the UK, is secure.
However, 24% said that using a smartphone for contactless payments is ‘not at all secure’, compared to 10% who believed it was ‘completely secure’, while 19% reported being unsure.
The figures highlight the difficulties that Apple, Google and Samsung face in convincing people to ditch plastic cards in favour of their smartphone to make retail payments. And that is despite the fact that cards are not considered particularly safe either, particularly in the US which is now moving to chip and PIN used in Australia and Europe.
Younger people and people from wealthy households were less likely to perceive smartphone contactless payments as insecure compared to older and poorer people, according to Ofcom. It also found that more people who owned a smartphone confident in the security of contactless payments than people who owned a standard mobile phone.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now