What is the most popular payment method in the United Kingdom?
The debit card. Debit cards carried 26.6 billion payments in 2025, 54% of all UK payments, according to the UK Finance UK Payment Markets 2026 report. Most of them are contactless, by card or phone.
In detail
The debit card. According to the UK Finance UK Payment Markets 2026 report, debit cards carried 26.6 billion payments in 2025, 54% of all payments and 63% of consumer payments. Cards as a whole reached 64% of all payments.
Contactless is the norm
UK Finance recorded 19.2 billion contactless card payments in 2025, and 62% of consumer debit card payments were made by tap. About 37.6 million consumers were registered for at least one mobile wallet. Since March 2026, the FCA lets banks and payment providers with strong fraud controls set their own contactless limits, although most issuers have kept the £100 cap.
The card landscape
The UK has no domestic card scheme, so Visa and Mastercard brand almost every card, with American Express as a third network. Credit cards added 5.3 billion payments in 2025.
What comes next
Faster Payments and other remote banking payments came second, with 6.2 billion payments. Pay by Bank and buy now, pay later are growing options at checkout.
What it means for payment operators
For operators serving UK merchants, cards and wallets come first, with Pay by Bank and BNPL as growing additions. Managing acceptance costs, from interchange to scheme fees, and routing card traffic well matter in a market where cards carry most payments.