Bank of Ireland have today released their latest figures on contactless activity showing a 142% increase of customer usage of contactless over just a one year period.
In February alone, there were over four million (4.25m) contactless transactions, jumping from 1.7m recorded in February 2016.
Males and females are on a relative even kilter when it comes to their use of ‘tapping’ with males slightly tilting the balance at 51%. This figures increases slightly when taking into account transaction amounts (52%) and transaction numbers (53%).
The younger generation, 15-19 year olds have embraced contactless with the number of customers increasing almost threefold (by 290%). Transactions have also significantly increased (383%) and this post-millennial generation have increased the amounts they are spending on contactless payments, having quadrupled (406%).
Surprisingly, it is not generation Z that are most likely to favour contactless, 30-39 year olds across all regions are the biggest users of contactless. Expectedly when it came to regional breakdown, Dublin dominates the volume of contactless payments (43%) with the North West, South East and South West all on an even par at 19%.
The data shows that the majority of customers that favour contactless payments are also more likely to use Bank of Ireland’s online banking service 365 online with 78% of customers using contactless and registered on 365 online.
The increase and reliance on online methods has subsequently decreased cheque usage, with nearly a decrease of one-third (27%) of cheques issued by Bank of Ireland from February compared to the previous year.
Commenting on the figures, Director of Products at Bank Ireland, John O’Beirne said, "Our latest figures demonstrate that customers are increasingly favouring what is seen as the most efficient method of payment for items below €30. The rate of contactless usage is increasing at a considerable rate and we can expect the figures to continue to increase across all demographics in the coming months."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
