UK consumers save an average of 34 years in time every month by opting to pay for goods with contactless cards opposed to the traditional chip and pin method, according to a new study.

Data from Card Cutters found that 218 million contactless transactions are carried out every month in the UK. Paying by contactless is twice as fast as chip and pin, taking on average less than five seconds to complete a transaction.

The time saved per month by using contactless spans the time it would take to fly to the moon and back over 2,000 times, the study says.

Card Cutters also found that consumers in Wales were the quickest at carrying out a contactless transaction with 68% taking under five seconds, while just 47% of consumers in Northern Ireland managed the same duration.

Paul Edwards, Card Cutters UK director, said: “We believe the amount of time people save using contactless is very important. Currently people can purchase items valued up to £30; but with Apple and Android pay this could all change in the near future and the maximum spend could rise again.

“As we’ve seen, a huge amount of money is spent using contactless payments on a monthly basis in the UK and it’s safe to say the great appeal of it is the speed and ease of just tapping a screen rather than typing in a PIN. Our study backs this theory up – you’re going to spend twice as long staring at a card payment machine using chip and PIN.”