According to a recent survey into the UK mobile finance market, one in ten UK consumers use mobile wallet tech to make payments via their mobile phone, which means the use of mobile wallet in the United Kingdom has doubled in the last 12 months.

The research was carried out by Mobile Life, a TSN research paper into the use of mobile handset in the United Kingdom, and according to the research 1-in-5 consumers in the UK now user their device for basic banking such as checking an account balance, which is also up 100 percent on the year previous.

According to the figures 11.9 percent of UK consumers use their handset for making payments online, whilst just 12 months ago that figure was 5.9 percent. 20.4 percent of people now regularly bank via using their smartphone, which is again up from 9.7 percent in 2010.

Group Director at TNS Technology, Stephen Yap says, “The huge increase in the use of mobile wallet technology in the UK shows the dramatic effect technology is having on our lifestyles. The incredible success of the smartphone is encouraging people to migrate many of their key online activities onto their mobile. In the last twelve months in particular the openness of the Android platform has increased handset competition and driven down prices, meaning that more and more people are able to use their handset as a payment tool.”

Mobile wallet tech enables user to use their handset much like a credit or debit card to pay for gear online and does not require a bank account and can be “topped up” with cash to store to facilitate transactions at any time.