Data I acquired from banks suggests that at the end of September almost 590 thousand customers used Android Pay or HCE payments. That means an increase of 180 thousand compared to June, when approximately 410 thousand customers used mobile payments, and an increase of over 400 thousand compared to September 2016, when banks stated that they have approximately 175 thousand HCE users.

Related: Android Pay Has Over 150 Thousand Users In Poland - Doubling Its Numbers Since June

As you can see, the number of people using mobile and contactless payments tripled in the last 12 months, which points to a very quick absorption of the new technology on the Polish market. As a result, there is little doubt that the question of what might replace plastic payment cards in the coming years has been answered. At least when it comes to paying for shopping at brick and mortar stores.

PKO PB can boast the largest number of customers using their smartphones to pay at POS terminals - it adds up to almost 120 thousand. BZ WBK is in second place with over 100 thousand HCE and Android Pay users as well. The bank is followed by Pekao, mBank, Millennium and Alior. It is worth mentioning that there has been a significant increase in the number of contactless mobile payments at mBank and Alior.

Related: This May Be the World's First Banking Application with Fingerprint Authorization for Money Transfers

Compared to June, the group of banks offering the newest smartphone payment solutions grew again, this time joined by BGŻ BNP Paribas. The bank's customers have been able to use Android Pay since September. The company has not decided to disclose the number of customers who use the technology due to the fact that it has only introduced it recently.

Below you can see a table with detailed, new information and statistics. You will notice that BGŻ BNP Paribas is not the only bank that keeps HCE or Android Pay numbers to itself - Nest, BPS and Orange Finanse don’t disclose them either. The former has had this policy for a longer time, while a representative of Orange Finanse declared that the bank will start publishing its Android Pay statistics in the next quarter. In the case of BPS, the table shows an estimate based on the number of downloads its app has in Google Play.