Over €26m spent a day in contactless payments in February
New figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland reveal that 1.6 million contactless payments were made every day in February.
February saw a total of 46.2 million contactless payment made over the course of the month worth over €733m.
This marked an increase of 6.5% in volume terms on the same time last year and a substantial jump of 42% in value terms over the same period.
“The dramatic increase we have seen in the total value of contactless in the year to February highlights the impact of the higher transaction limit of €50 that was introduced last April.
“As a result of this change we can see the average payment value rose from €11.92 in February 2020 to €15.88 a year later,” Brian Hayes, the chief executive of BPFI, said.
“Looking at the trends in daily contactless payments there was an increase to 1.6 million payments valued at €26.2m per day in February 2021, up from 1.5 million payments valued at €18m a year earlier”, Mr Hayes said.
He also noted that contactless payments accounted for an estimated one-third of the value of payments at the point of sale or in-store.
“The increases we have seen both in terms of the daily and monthly trends in the year to February once again highlights the popularity and growth in contactless payments particularly when you consider that the country has been in the midst of a level 5 lockdown this February compared to a year ago when we were still living free of Covid restrictions of any sort,” Brian Hayes said.
“This underlines the ongoing shift from cash to digital and the fundamental change in people’s behaviour which will undoubtedly continue beyond the current pandemic,” he added.
Article Source – Over €26m spent a day in contactless payments in February – RTE
