The Central Bank of Ireland has published a Behind the Data paper on card spending data for Irish households, showing the growing use of modern payment methods like contactless cards and digital wallets.
The paper shared insights about how people spend money in different counties in Ireland, how they use contactless payments (including digital wallets) and how spending patterns for card usage varies across sectors and sub-sectors.
Contactless card transactions accounted for 84% of all point-of-sale card transactions on a volume basis.
Dublin accounted for over half of monthly card payments, while Cork and Galway came in second and third place for card spending. Dublin also had the highest card payments per 1,000 people, totaling €12.6 million.
According to the paper, card spending in the retail sector accounted for 47% of all domestic spending. Within retail, card spending in the groceries and perishables sub-sector represented 23% of total domestic card spending, accounting for €1.3 billion in H1 2023.
The total value of monthly card transactions (including cash withdrawals) averaged c. €6.8 billion per month during H1 2023, representing an average volume of 162 million card transactions per month.
Contactless card payments accounted for over three-quarters of the total volume of card payments, excluding online/remote payment transactions. During H1 2023, mobile wallet card payments accounted for 32% of all card transactions undertaken at a POS terminal.
Nevertheless, when considering the monetary value, contactless card and mobile wallet card payments constitute a smaller share of total POS card transactions, comprising 51% and 22%, respectively. According to the Central Bank of Ireland, this trend reflected that contactless card payments are mainly used for transactions of lesser value.
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