Another surge in transactions means contactless payments are here to stay

Irish consumers are now spending more than €30m a day through contactless payments

'The pandemic has undoubtedly played a considerable role in driving this change in consumer behaviour'.

Irish consumers made just under two million contactless payments every day in March.

New figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show more than €948m worth of contactless transactions were made in the month, an increase of 72% on March of last year.

Digital payments instead of cash increased rapidly last year over concerns about the spread of Covid-19. The BPFI said the most recent figures clearly demonstrate the shift which has taken place from cash to digital payments.

"On a day-to-day basis, 1.9 million contactless payments to the value of €30.6m were made per day in March 2021 with the value of payments jumping from €17.8m a year earlier," Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI, said.

"The pandemic has undoubtedly played a considerable role in driving this change in consumer behaviour, something we expect to continue as the country begins to open back up again.”

In quarterly terms, volumes rose by 13% year-on-year to 148.7 million between January and March, while values rose by 47% to €2.3bn.

Payments in stores or at other physical terminals accounted for almost half (48%) of card spend in March and contactless payments accounted for 35.7% of these point-of-sale payments – the highest share since the monthly data became available in January 2020.