Contactless Visa card transactions increased almost four-fold in the U.K to 94.3 million in 2013 from 25 million in 2012, according to Visa Europe. Every U.K. issuer is now offering Visa contactless cards, the card brand said.

There was a similar growth in use of contactless Visa cards in Europe, where more than 340 million purchases were made using contactless Visa cards in 2013.

There are now 32.1 million Visa contactless cards in circulation in the U.K., up 125 percent since December 2012. The total number of contactless Visa cards in Europe rose by 158 percent year-on-year in 2013 to 80.6 million.

The top five markets for Visa contactless payments in Europe in the last 12 months were Poland (158.7 million purchases); U.K. (94.3 million purchases); Czech Republic (30.6 million purchases); Slovakia (23.1 million purchases); and Spain (17.5 million purchases).

Visa Europe said the number of contactless terminals in the U.K. has risen by almost 200 percent since 2012 to more than 300,000. Spending on contactless cards in the U.K. rose to more than £618 million ($1.03 billion) in 2013, with £82 million ($136 million) spent in December 2013 alone.

Contactless cards were popular with Londoners, who made 10 million journeys on London buses using Visa contactless cards in 2013. With the arrival of contactless payments on the London Underground later this year, the use of contactless cards will rise even further, Sandra Alzetta, Visa Europe's executive director, said in a statement.

Contactless payments are becoming more popular for small purchases, besides coffee and newspapers, Julian Potter, U.K. retailer Baytree Interiors' general manager, said in a statement. "Our staff have noticed an increasing number of customers choosing this payment method," he said. "As a home interiors store, we sell a number of items under the threshold of £20 ($33), which makes this technology ideal for us."