The UK's Barclays Bank says that from March most Barclays debit cards that are issued or reissued will have contactless technology built in as standard.The bank, which claims to be the first in the UK to roll-out contactless Visa debit cards, expects more than three million customers to be using the technology by the end of the year.
Over 8000 UK retailers currently accept contactless payments including fast food sandwich bars and independent retailers.
The cards can be used to pay for transactions of £10 or less, without the need to enter a PIN or insert the card into a terminal.
The next generation of cards will still have chip and PIN which will be used for purchases and for ATM transactions, states the bank, and will periodically prompt for the PIN to be entered at contactless terminals to verify the customer's identity.
Barclaycard was the first to introduce contactless technology on credit cards in the UK in September 2007 with the launch of Barclaycard OnePulse, the three in one Oyster, credit and contactless card.
The bank has recently been running a national TV advertising campaign to promote the benefits of contactless technology.
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