Consumers in Europe did 19 million transactions with Visa-branded contactless bank cards in March, up by nearly 50% from December, announced Visa Europe Tuesday, which predicts monthly transactions will increase to 52 million by the end of 2013.

Visa noted there are now 58 million contactless cards running its payWave contactless application in Europe and 797,000 point-of-sale terminals that accept it, led by such countries as the UK, Poland and Spain. All or nearly all of the terminals also accept MasterCard PayPass.

Both payment schemes are promoting the rollout of contactless in Europe and elsewhere as they seek to capture more transactions from cash and jump-start mobile NFC payment. Both Visa and MasterCard are believed to be subsidizing terminals for some merchants, and perhaps covering some other costs, especially in such countries as Poland.

Visa Europe noted that more than €1 billion (US$1.29 billion) has been spent on contactless cards and smartphones “equipped” with a Visa payWave application to date.

And Visa added there are 39 live Visa mobile-contactless payment projects in Europe, though they are believed to be small, either initial commercial launches or large ongoing pilots of NFC or bridge technologies.

In addition, the contactless transactions represent only a tiny slice of total transactions on Visa cards in Europe. And calculating from the number of payWave cards on issue as of March and total number of transactions works out to less than one tap every two months.

But use is definitely increasing, especially in such contactless hotspots as the UK and Poland, said Visa.

The payment scheme noted that UK consumers made 5.3 million contactless transactions in March, worth more than £39 million (US$59.1 million).

Use was up 22% in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter of 2012 and one in four Visa cards in the UK, or 26.9 million cards, supports payWave. All told, 232,000 POS terminals in the country accept payWave, along with other contactless brands. UK consumers can tap to pay for purchases of up to £20 without entering a PIN code.

Most contactless cards in the UK sport the Visa brand. According to the UK Cards Association, there were a total of 31 million contactless cards on issue in the UK at the end of 2012 supporting all brands.

Visa noted that consumers have conducted 1.5 million Visa contactless transactions on London buses since Transport for London opened up fare collection to contactless credit and debit cards in December. The transit authority plans to expand open-loop fare payment to its other modes of transport, including the Underground, with a target date at the end of 2013.

Visa in its announcement Tuesday also repeated figures released earlier this month by large UK retailer Marks and Spencer, which said it was handling more 230,000 contactless transactions a week.

The contactless rollout by the merchant also made news this week when a British media outlet reported that some customers had told it they were charged for purchases on contactless cards still in their purses or wallets, which they hadn’t intended to use.

Also in the UK, Visa noted that the Post Office was installing contactless-payment terminals in all of its 11,500 branches.

The UK Post Office earlier this month announced it had deployed 30,000 contactless terminals across the branches, making it the largest accepter of contactless payment in Europe by number of terminals or locations.

In Poland, Visa said there were 10 million contactless transactions per month as of March. According to other figures released recently by Visa, there were a total of 47 million contactless transactions during all of 2012 in Poland. So even if the monthly rate of transactions remains steady from March, total transactions for 2013 would still be up by more than 100% from 2012. Poland is believed to boast the highest use of contactless of any country in Europe.

Visa said there were 8.6 million contactless cards in circulation in Poland in March. MasterCard also has a very significant presence in the country with PayPass. According to Visa, there were 116,000 contactless terminals in Poland supporting payWave, as of March. All or nearly all would also support PayPass.

There were 183,000 contactless terminals in Spain, but Visa recorded only 900,000 contactless transactions in March of 2013 on 2.9 million payWave cards. But card numbers are expected to grow to 7.5 million by the end of 2013.

In France, Visa reported 6.7 million payWave cards on issue and 120,000 contactless terminals, with 16 million payWave cards expected by the end of the year.

Turkey had more than 6 million payWave cards in circulation as of March, projected to grow to 8.5 million by the end of 2013. There were 69,000 contactless terminals as of March.

Visa didn't release any figures for contactless transactions for France or Turkey.