38 % of British people are interested in m-payments

According to a research by Mintel, a UK-based market research firm, young people and Londoners are leading the way in adopting cashless payments in the UK. Also, the research found that non-bank electronic payment methods such as PayPal are trusted more than contactless and mobile card payments.

Support for a cashless society is strongest in London, with 30 % prepared to stop using cash. And it is the nations youth who are leading the way in new payment forms. 22 % of those aged 25 to 34 have used Barclays Pingit peer-to-peer mobile payment system, compared to 5 % of those aged 45-54. About 17 % of 25- to 34-year-olds have used the virtual currency Bitcoin at least once, Mintel found.

Finally, the research revealed that consumers are more concerned about the security of mobile payments than card payments. 65 % of consumers showed some concern about mobile payment security and 61 % showed some concern about contactless cards, compared with 34 % who were concerned about using debit cards and the 33 % who were concerned about credit cards.

Consumers were notably less concerned about using non-bank payment services such as PayPal, which protect users financial data from being seen by third parties. Only 27 % of Internet users are concerned about using non-bank payment services such as PayPal.