MORE THAN 60% of all contactless payments last year were made using smartphones.

The Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) today issued its latest payments monitor and found that over 1.6 billion contactless point of sale payments were made in shops, restaurants and other retail outlets last year.

These 1.6 billion contactless payments amounted to over €30 billion in sales.

There was a 7% increase in contactless payments, and a 13% increase in values, last year when compared to 2024.

Contactless payments accounted for close to 90% of all point of sale card payments last year, with 62.4% of all contactless payments made using mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, rather than cards.

Over 60% of contactless payments now use mobile wallets BPFI BPFI

Gillian Byrne, Head of Payments at BPFI, noted that “smartphones are becoming the preferred payment method over physical cards for many Irish consumers”.

Of the 298 contactless payments made on average per person in Ireland on Irish cards last year, 159 were made through mobile wallets.

Mobile wallet payments per capita BPFI BPFI

And while contactless payments are on the rise, cash withdrawals are dwindling.

The number of cash withdrawals fell by 7.1% last year to 82.2 million, while the value of withdrawals fell by 4.2% to €12.2 billion.

The value of cash withdrawn fell in every county last year bar Donegal, where the value was unchanged.

The largest percentage drop was in Kilkenny, which saw cash withdrawal values drop by 8%.

The contrasting trends in contactless payments and cash withdrawals are also evident in the relative value of transactions.

For every €1 in cash withdrawn last year, €2.46 was spent in contactless payments.

This was most pronounced in Dublin and Carlow, where €3.10 was spent in contactless payments for every €1 of cash withdrawn.

Contactless payment value per €1 cash withdrawn BPFI BPFI

One the other end of the scale, the lowest ratio was in Co Monagan, where only €1.11 was spent in contactless payments per euro in cash withdrawn.

Cards meanwhile are increasingly replacing cash as the means of payments for in-person services, such as bars and restaurants, barbers and beauty shops, and medical care.

Card spending on these in-person services increased from €7.4 billion in 2023 to €8.9 billion last year.

Byrne remarked that while cash will “continue to play an important role for consumers, the convenience and security of contactless and mobile wallet payments are likely driving the growth in their adoption among Irish consumers”.