Consumers made more than 1.4 billion contactless payments to the value of €24.8 billion in shops, restaurants and other retail outlets in the 12 months to the end of June 2024 according to the latest payments analysis published in Banking & Payments Federation Ireland’s (BPFI) Payments Monitor.
The report shows that smartphones are increasingly becoming the preferred payment device for many consumers with more than half of all contactless payments now made using mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, rather than cards.
Over the same period more than 670 million online and mobile banking payments were made to the value of almost €7.5 trillion.
Outlining the latest key trends in the Monitor, Gillian Byrne, Head of Payments, BPFI said: “Looking at domestic in-store card payments as a whole, we can see that the volume of contactless payments continues to rise with some 86.1% of all domestic point of sale card payments now contactless.
Interestingly, we are seeing that more and more consumers are opting to use their smartphones and watches rather than their card to makes these payments, with the mobile wallet share of contactless payments increasing from 45.9% in June 2023 to 53.1% in June 2024.
Also of note, is that the average spend per mobile wallet payment was €18.93, 25% higher than the average contactless card payment.”
“Our report also highlights a number of regional differences with Dublin leading the way in terms of the number of contactless payments per capita in Ireland at 395, more than 40% above the national average, followed by Carlow (329), Limerick (287) and Waterford (282).
By contrast however, looking at the value of those payments, Dublin had the lowest average contactless payment at €16.52 while Westmeath had the highest at €18.36.”
Ms Byrne added: “When it comes to payments of course, behaviours and preferences are always shifting and changing, however, whether consumers opt to pay using card, smartphone, watch or indeed cash, of most importance is that choice remains with the customer.”
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