Contactless payments make up 84% of all card transactions

Central Bank data shows that on average there were 103 million contactless card transactions recorded per month over the first half of the year, with an equivalent value of €1.7bn.

Payments through contactless cards and mobile phone wallets now account for 84% of all point-of-sale transactions in the country with an average of €6.8bn being spent or withdrawn on cards each month, new data from the Central Bank shows.

According to the data, during the first months of the year, Irish households recorded 971 million credit and debit card transactions worth €40.1 billion. There was, on average, 103 million contactless card transactions recorded per month over the first half of the year, with an equivalent value of €1.7bn.

Payments using mobile wallets — such as Apple Pay or Google Pay — are increasingly being used as a payment method. During the first half of this year, mobile wallet card payments accounted for 32% of all card transactions undertaken at a point-of-sale terminal.

However, in value terms, contactless card and mobile-wallet card payments account for a smaller proportion of overall card payment transactions, accounting for 51% and 22% respectively. This represents the fact that contactless card payments are still more generally used for lower-value payments.

The limit for contactless payments is currently set at €50.

On average, there have been 162 million card transactions a month, including withdrawals, during the first half of the year with an average €6.8bn being spent or withdrawn every month.

Card spending in the retail sector accounts for 47% of all domestic spending. Spending on groceries and perishables alone represented 23% of the total card spending worth €1.3bn spent between January to June.

Dublin accounted for 53% of all card payments by value with card spending in other large cities such as Cork and Galway ranked second and third highest.

Dublin is also top of the scale with total card payments equating to €12.6 million per 1,000 population. On the other hand, Offaly is the lowest-ranking county for card spending by population.

Cash withdrawals per 1,000 population was highest in Carlow followed by Dublin.