November 29 (SeeNews) - About 65% of Bulgarian active cardholders make contactless payments, an 11 percentage points increase compared with last year, mainly because it is more convenient, payment processor Mastercard said on Thursday, quoting the results of its survey.
According to 80.8% of the respondents, the main advantage of contactless payment is its convenience, 78.4% said it is faster, and 29.1% find it more secure, Mastercard's MasterIndex 2018 poll shows.
The age of the people using contactless cards is also increasing as in 2018 they were most popular among 35 and 44 year-olds, while in 2017 some 59% of the users were in the 18-24 age bracket.
Bulgarians make contactless payments mainly in retail chains, gas stations and drugstores.
The study also shows that 94.3% of the users have not experienced any problems with their transactions in the last six months.
By the end of this year, all POS terminals in Bulgaria will be contactless, Mastercard manager for Bulgaria and Macedonia Vanya Manova said, adding that they are prepared for the next generation of payment products and services - mobile payments.
Mastercard operates the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and companies in more than 210 countries and territories, the company said on its website.