Consumers are turning more to debit cards and contactless payments, according to the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI).
In the past three years, the number of debit-card transactions has increased rapidly in Ireland, the CBI said in its latest quarterly bulletin.
There is also some tentative evidence to suggest that the increase in their use has come at the expense of credit cards and cash transactions.
The rise in popularity of debit-card transactions is due to the increasing availability of contactless-enabled payment terminals and contactless debit cards.
Last year, contactless transactions accounted for just over 80pc of the 152 million increase in payment volumes, according to the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland’s latest ‘Payments Monitor’.
While contactless payments may be on the increase, the average payment per contactless transaction remained small at €12.24 in the final quarter of 2017, and, according to the CBI, this figure has remained stable.
Debit cards account for almost all contactless transactions, indicating an increasing use of debit cards for small-value payments where previously consumers may have used cash. In addition, there has been a marked slowdown in the volume and value of ATM withdrawals since 2016.
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