Caitríona Redmond: Using your bank card? Here's why contactless or digital wallet is the way to go

Stay card-safe and trouble-free

The contactless pad sitting beside the till is where you tap your bank card or, more and more these days, your phone or smartwatch.

If I told you that over 1.6 billion contactless point-of-sale payments were made in shops, restaurants, and other retailers within a 12-month period up to June 2025, would you believe me? Not only is this statement true, according to the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) recent payments monitor, but these payments were valued at €28.3 billion.

At this stage, nearly everyone knows the contactless pad sitting beside the till. It’s where you tap your bank card or, more and more these days, your phone or smartwatch. The BPFI reckons that mobile or digital wallet taps now make up over 58% of all contactless payments in Ireland as of the second quarter of 2025. That’s a fair jump in a short space of time.