The bank says Australians are taking quickly to the new way to pay, with customers making more than 60,000 purchase transactions since the service launched earlier this year.

The app is proving popular for purchases of lunch, coffee and snacks with a higher proportion of transactions at cafes, restaurants fast food and supermarkets when compared with contactless cards (60% of NAB Pay transactions vs 52% of Paywave).

NAB executive general manager for consumer lending, Angus Gilfillan, says more than 150 customers are activating NAB Pay, every day.

“Australians have been fast adopters of contactless payments, with more than 70 per cent of transactions now done in this way,” he says. “If NAB Pay is anything to go by, it won’t be long before mobile payments become the common payment method for our customers.”

During the working week, NAB Pay transactions spike at lunchtime, mainly at fast food restaurants, and between 6pm and 7pm, where most spending is done at the supermarket on the way home from work.

As expected, transactions have mostly been below the $100 mark, although the bank has recorded its use for higher value purchases of televisions and whitegoods at electronic retailers.

Last week, NAB introduced all consumer Visa Qantas and Velocity Rewards credit cards to the NAB Pay service.

Says Gilfillan: “We’re focused on delivering the number one cards experience in Australia and look forward to extending our digital wallet offering in the coming months.”

NAB's experience will provide a fillip to Google, which is working with ANZ, Westpac and other banks to launch Android Pay in Australia in the first half of this year. Rival service Apple Pay, meanwhile, continues to be cold-shouldered by the country's biggest banks in protest over Apple's demands for a slice of interchange revenue.