The announcement follows a successful initial launch which has seen over 600 of the largest Boots UK stores begin to offer contactless payments to customers including London stores zone 1-4. All Boots stores in the Republic of Ireland now offer this method of payment.

The contactless technology provided by Visa Europe and Streamline allows customers to simply tap the reader with their contactless enabled card when making payments of up to £20. Payments are made in less than a second.

Jonathan Vardon, IT Director, Boots UK commented, "We are very pleased that our contactless payment roll out is making good progress. Our aim is to offer customers a great shopping experience with quick, easy ways to pay and we believe that contactless payment is one way to deliver this as the technology has helped to reduce transaction and queuing times. We know that our customers want us to offer an unrivalled choice of services and products and we hope they will enjoy the benefits of using contactless technology in our store."

Mark Austin, Head of Contactless, Visa Europe said: "2012 was a tipping point for UK contactless transactions which increased over the course of the year to more than 2.5 million a month. We're predicting that transactions will grow fourfold over the course of 2013, thanks to the rollout in retailers like Boots UK, Marks and Spencer and McDonald's, as well as all of London's buses."

Darren Wilson, Managing Director, Streamline said, "Contactless technology is becoming increasingly popular on the high street as an efficient alternative to carrying cash. As the number one card acquirer in the UK and Europe, we have seen volumes of contactless transactions increase six-fold in the past year and are regularly processing over two million contactless transactions per month. I see contactless as an essential strategic development for large retailers such as Boots and consumers alike, and through adoption of this acceptance method by Boots, we expect transaction volumes to grow rapidly in 2013."

Visa's predictions for contactless payments:

• Visa contactless card numbers for the UK this year will reach 34 million (70 million across Europe)
• Contactless terminal numbers for the UK this year will reach 175,000 (650,000 across Europe)
• By 2020, 50% of the transactions on the Visa network will be made via a mobile device