Scanning proves popular in US

Across the Atlantic, the contactless revolution is growing at a faster pace – but not all of the innovations are likely to make their way onto British shores.

An app was launched by an American bank last year which allowed customers to pay in cheques by scanning them into their iPhone and transmitting them to their bank – an idea which has since been adopted by other financial institutions in North America.

Also in the US, coffee chain Starbucks last year unveiled a new app which allowed customers to charge up their account and pay by waving their mobile phone at an in-store terminal. Similar ideas have been replicated by a number of other companies.

But experts believe the idea is not necessarily viable long-term.

If every individual retailer required smartphone users to download their own app, the average futuristic consumer would end up with a phone cluttered with apps.