The jury is still out on contactless payment technology, with research suggesting only a small minority of consumers use it, while its promoters argue it is growing strongly. A report prepared for HP Enterprise Services, by RFi, which was published last month, shows that only one-third of consumers own a contactless card and those who do rarely use the contactless technology.A survey of 2000 consumers found that 48 per cent of those who have a contactless card never use it and 16 per cent use it less than once a month. Only three per cent use it daily.However, MasterCard Australia's head of market development and innovation, Matt Barr, said the number of payment terminals set up for contactless payment jumped from 65,000 in December to 82,000 in May."We are seeing very strong month-on-month growth in contactless payment volumes," said Barr."This market has passed the tipping point."This week, MasterCard and Westpac announced that they would trial a smartphone with a "virtual debit MasterCard" embedded in its SIM.The Samsung Android phone will be the first in Australia to handle contactless payments without requiring a hardware attachment, such as a case or sticker. The system will meet global certification standards. PayPass and Paywave readers in point of sale terminals will process payments when the phone is tapped on the terminal."The phone's SIM is configured to be a debit card, and to the consumer it looks just like a PayPass transaction," said Barr.Barr said the phone would only process Westpac payments during the trial, but the technology being tested would also provide a building block for an open architecture electronic wallet.