Contactless card payments treble in Britain during 2014

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Spending using contactless paymentcards more than trebled to 2.32 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) inBritain during 2014, the UK Cards Association said on Friday.

The trade body said debit and credit cards now accounted for75.8 percent of retail sales in Britain, compared with 51.6percent a decade ago.

"Contactless has now firmly stepped into the mainstream,"said Richard Koch, head of policy at the UK Cards Association.

"With usage soaring every month last year, we've seen peopleflocking to contactless payments as they switch away from cash,"he added.($1 = 0.6527 pounds) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Simon Jessop)