Contactless mobile payments are beginning to increase in popularity in the UK, with a quarter of the population having made an in-store transaction on their handset, a Visa study found.

The transaction processing company said consumers using contactless payments on their credit and debit cards were more likely to have used mobile pay services.

According to a poll of 2,077 people conducted during June and July, 26 per cent said they had used mobile payments and 36 per cent had used contactless cards.

Kevin Jenkins, MD for Visa UK & Ireland, said: “Our study shows the appetite for adopting new payment methods is greater than ever and with mobile devices opening up myriad new ways to pay, the next ten years looks set to see contactless payments become an ever greater part of our day to day lives.”

Visa’s findings show a similar trend to statistics released in mid-August by retail payment processor Worldpay, which showed UK retail mobile payments rising 336 per cent in the first half of 2017.

Despite being one of the first countries for the launch of Apple Pay, and having Samsung and Google’s payment platforms both available, progress of contactless mobile payments had been sluggish in the country.