Cash is no longer king, if the latest figures from the Central Bank tell us anything, with point of sale transactions using debit cards increasing by 40% to €2.6 billion in the year to May 2016. In the month consumers used their cards to withdraw €1.6 billion in cash.

Through May, total transactions on debit cards reached a record figure of €4.2 billion, while credit card spending stayed steady at €870m. The value of new PoS debit card spending per month was almost three times greater for debit cards than for credit cards.

Debit card e-commerce expenditure amounted to €690 million, up 22%. Credit card e-commerce spend increased by 30% from February 2016 to €380 million in May 2016.

Slightly over €1.2 billion of outstanding credit card balances included accrued interest, with 8% of cards exceeding their credit limit while 36% had balances between 76 and 100% of their credit limit. This proportion has remained virtually unchanged over the past year, although there has been a small increase in the number of personal credit cards in issue during the same period.

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