Customers who make contactless payments are more likely to tip than their more traditional counterparts, US payments firm Square found in a survey.

The firm spent six weeks pushing its contactless and chip reader to businesses in Portland, Oregon.

It found that 73 per cent of those who paid using mobile payments, including Apple Pay or contactless cards, left a tip. A slightly lower figure (71 per cent) of chip and PIN card users left a tip. And an even lower proportion (67 per cent) of users with magstripe swipe cards were generous to café and shop workers.

Square did not provide an explanation for the divergence and, although it is not massive, one possible explanation is that users of mobile payments are more affluent than the other users, seeing as they fall into the early adopter category.

Even before its #payfasterportland campaign run by Square, the city was number one in the US for orders of the firm’s news reader. The rate of Portland people paying on the reader is higher than the national average, said Square.