ALMOST €600 MILLION was spent by consumers using contactless payments in Ireland in May – the highest monthly total to date in 2020.

Many people have made the switch to contactless payments, or increased how often they use them, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On average consumers made €19.3 million worth of contactless payments per day during May, up 7% on figures in February – before Covid-19 hit, according to figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI).

In volume terms contactless payment usage was 1.25 million, down from 1.51 million ‘taps’ per day in February.

While this decrease is unexpected due to the lockdown and restrictions on movement during March through to mid-May, overall the figures indicate that consumers are spending more than before through contactless payments with the May figures accounting for the highest value on record this year.

With the contactless limit was increased to €50 in April in response to the Covid-19 crisis, the figures also show an increase in the average contactless transaction which reached €15.30 in May, up from €11.92 in February.

Speaking about the latest figures, Brian Hayes, Chief Executive of the BPFI, said: “Now more than ever before consumers want fast, simple and secure payments and this is very much reflected in today’s figures which are showing a strong recovery in the values of contactless payments for May.”

Hayes said the growth is likely in part a result of the increase in the contactless limit to €50.

He added that separate research carried out by the BPFI recently shows that “92% of all adults have now used contactless payments with one-third of adults using contactless as their preferred method of payment in cafes and over a quarter preferring contactless when grocery shopping”.