From Spring 2012, customers in selected stores will be able to pay for their coffees by simply holding their contactless credit or debit card over a payment terminal.

Following last week's launch of the UK's first contactless mobile payment service, by Barclaycard and Orange, customers will also be able to pay using their mobile phone. Available to Orange customers who use a 'Quick Tap' enabled handset, customers will just have to tap their mobile phone on a contactless reader to make purchases of £15 and under.

Subject to a successful initial pilot of contactless in Starbucks shops, the technology will roll out across the bulk of Starbucks coffeehouses in the UK and Ireland. Starbucks joins a number of high street retailers in announcing the introduction of the payment technology.

Pete Blower, Starbucks EMEA Technology Services Manager, says: "At Starbucks we're as committed to customer service as we are to great coffee. We're seeing more and more people use cards for payment and contactless will allow us to serve our customers more quickly and with greater ease."

Since launching the first contactless card in 2007, Barclaycard has led the industry on rolling out contactless payment terminals and together with Barclays have issued over 80 per cent of the contactless-enabled credit and debit cards in the UK.

Marc Pettican, Sales Director of Global Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard says of the deal with Starbucks: "It's great to see such a well known name as Starbucks realising the benefit that contactless technology can bring to their customers and their business. Coffee shops are the perfect environment for contactless payments because so many of their customers are in a rush to get their drink and go. That Starbucks has decided to introduce contactless is great news for a brand seen as technologically innovative."

Head of Contactless at Visa Europe, Mark Austin, comments: "Starbucks' take up of this new technology shows we are reaching a tipping point where contactless payments will become a mainstream way to make fast, secure, low value transactions. Increasing acceptance by retailers and demand from consumers means the growth of contactless payments is set to accelerate quickly and will be widely visible in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games."

The number of contactless terminals provided to merchants by Barclaycard has more than doubled in a year . Barclaycard and Barclays have also spearheaded the issuing of contactless-enabled credit and debit cards, putting 11.4 million into circulation. As the number of contactless cards and terminals has increased so too has the amount of transactions: Last year 1.7 million contactless payments were processed, which represented growth of 150 per cent compared to 2009.