Consumers are increasingly switching from cash to card to make payments, new figures from the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show.

Last year, the value of debit card payments exceeded the value of ATM withdrawals as consumers opted to pay with a card rather than with cash. Irish consumers made debit card payments worth, on average, € 7,442 in 2015, compared with € 5,388 per head in ATM cash withdrawals.

Most consumers still rely on cash for low-value daily payments, and the BPFI estimates that the average cash payment in Ireland is € 18, compared with about € 50 for debit cards and about € 80 for personal credit cards (€ 142 for business credit cards). Cash also accounts for a higher number of transactions; 491 per head compared with 148 transactions for debit card payments and 34 credit card payments.

Cheques are still popular in Ireland however, with figures showing that the average person wrote 18 cheques in 2015.

Howver, the BPFI says that consumers’ traditional reliance on cash for low-value transactions is likely to lessen in the coming years with the wider availability of contactless cards - most banks here now offer contactless payments on debit and/or credit cards. The use of contactless cards should also be boosted by the doubling, at the end of October 2015, in the contactless card payment limits to € 30.

Growth in electronic commerce is also helping to shift consumers from cash to cards. Credit and debit cards were used to pay for some € 3,027 per capita in ecommerce (including online and phone) transactions in 2015, or representing about 29 per cent of all card payment value.