The Central Bank today released monthly data on debit and credit cards for the month of May, 2016.

Irish debit card transactions hit €4.2 bln across May. Point of Sale (PoS) transactions dominated the total figure providing €2.6bn, while the remaining €1.6 billion was accounted for by ATM withdrawals.

Debit card transactions have continued on an upward trend since the post-Christmas low of €3.4 billion in January.

The Central Bank indicate that there were 4.5 mln debit cards in use across May 2016, making 66.3m transactions across.

There were 1.9 mln credit cards in use in May 2016, making 10.4 mln transactions.

Eight per cent of cards have exceeded their credit limit while 36 per cent had balances between 76 and 100 per cent of their respective 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.

Source: www.businessworld.ie