Contactless PIN-free payment will become a reality this month with more than 200 newsagents signed up for Barclaycard's OnePulse card, which uses OneTouch technology. But shop owners in our survey are not convinced that the new system will be useful for them.

The technology, which allows users to touch a terminal with their card instead of entering a PIN or having to write a signature for transactions of £10 and under, is billed as a way of cutting queue times in shops and making it easier for consumers to make purchases.

Mastercard and Visa also have similar systems rolling out across the UK, called PayPass and PayWave respectively.

Barclaycard believes that 2,000 retailers will have signed up to use the system by the end of the year, but the hype that surrounds the technology hasn't reached all shop owners, with 30% saying they had never even heard of it.

Retailers are even less confident that their customers have heard of the contactless payments, with 40% believing they don't know what it is.

Independent store owners also expressed a lack of interest in signing up to the scheme, with only 40% saying they may consider trying it. Reasons for a lack of interest vary from not fully understanding the benefits of the system to not wanting any more technology in store. "We don't accept cards of any sort in our store and wouldn't change our policy for this new system," says one owner, while another adds: "I don't think our customers would be interested in using such cards."

Some retailers did think it was a good idea, however. "We are aware of the technology and would be interested in using it," says one retailer. "It is likely to help reduce queues at busy times and it will probably help sell more products as people are more likely to carry the card than have lots of loose change."

This interest doesn't necessarily mean store owners will be signing up for OneTouch or a similar system quite yet and only 10% of store managers we approached think the technology will make a huge difference.

"It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure what the real benefits for our business would be," according to one symbol store owner.

"People tend to pay for cheaper items with cash anyway so I would question how much faster the technology will make transactions." Another adds: "The benefits for store owners really aren't that clear yet."