Smartphones and watches are becoming the preferred payment method for many, new data shows.
The latest figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show that half of all contactless payments are now made using mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, rather than cards.
In the 12 months to June, a total of 1.4 billion contactless payments were made, valued at almost €25 billion.
732 million of these payments were made using a mobile wallet, valued at just under €14 billion.
A higher share of younger age groups prefer mobile wallets, with more than half of 18-24 year olds saying their smartphone was their preferred payment method.
"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," said Gillian Byrne, Head of Payments at BPFI.
"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.
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"Also of note, is that the average spend per mobile wallet payment was €18.93, 25% higher than the average contactless card payment," she added.
The report 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.
This was followed by Carlow, Limerick and Waterford.
Roscommon had the lowest contactless payments per capita at 137, followed by Offaly with 146.
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.
Meanwhile, today's data shows that 670 million online and mobile banking payments were made in the 12 months to the end of June, valued at almost €7.5 trillion.
Almost half of adults said mobile banking apps were their preferred method to transfer money.
