Co-op turns to contactless method of payments

Customers will be able to pay for purchases of 15 or less without using a Pin in most of the chain's stores by the 2012 Olympics if a trial is successful.

Customers will swipe a card over a terminal and the secure transaction will automatically add the purchase to the customer's credit card bill or debits it from their current account. The pilot will begin in 100 stores next year following an agreement with Barclaycard.

The supermarket wants the system in place by the Olympics, when visitors are expected to use contactless payment for low-value purchases such as transport.

Contactless payment was introduced in the UK in 2007, and there are now more than nine million cards in circulation.

Co-operative spokesman Mark Hale said the technology would speed up transactions.