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Irish consumers are rapidly adopting contactless payments, with mobile wallet transactions growing significantly. The upcoming roll-out of contactless payments on public transport is expected to see many Leap card users switch to pay-as-you-go methods using their bank cards or mobile wallets.
Many Leap card users are expected to use contactless bank cards to pay once this becomes available. Photograph: Dara Mac DónaillMany Leap card customers are expected to switch to pay-as-you-go payments once available.
In its latest quarterly card payments report, the banking lobby group said almost 90 per cent of in-store card payments in the first half of the year were contactless. Point-of-sale payments accounted for more than three-quarters of total Irish card payments over the period. The data, which the BPFI said illustrated how "enthusiastically" Irish consumers had adopted contactless in recent years, showed mobile wallet payments were the fastest-growing category of contactless payments.
Westport Estate CEO: 'Ireland has to create new product, it can't just rely on Killarney and the Cliffs of Moher'Compared with the first half of 2025, contactless and PIN-verified payments volumes fell by 8.1 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively, according to the figures. However, the number of mobile wallet payments increased by 18.3 per cent to 536.3 million transactions, the BPFI said.
Almost two-thirds of all point-of-sale transactions were mobile wallet payments in the second quarter of the year, rising from almost 57 per cent since the second quarter of 2024. In total, the BPFI said that almost 840 million contactless and mobile wallet payments were made in the first half of the year, valued at nearly €16 billion, representing a 7.3 per cent and 12.9 per cent increase from the same period last year in volume and value terms, respectively.
"Mobile wallets have clearly overtaken physical cards in popularity, with 64.2 per cent of contactless payments made using mobile wallets, up from 58.2 per cent in the first half of 2025," BPFI head of payments Gillian Byrne said. "Contactless payments dominate everyday, lower-value spending in shops and other outlets. The average mobile wallet payment was €20.96, while the average contactless card payment was lower at €15.36.
" Meanwhile, online payments continue to grow as well, particularly for higher-value purchases, Byrne said. "Domestic online card payments rose by 12.9 per cent year on year to 305 million transactions in the first half of 2026, valued at nearly €24 billion, with the average online card payment at €78.49. "plan to roll out contactless payments on public transport routes from 2028 was a "huge opportunity" to increase card usage in Ireland.
, means millions of public transportation users will be able to use contactless card and mobile wallets to pay for journeys on bus, rail and tram.
"There were almost 364 million passenger journeys on bus, rail and tram in 2025, according to the NTA, with 248 million of those journeys paid for using Leap cards, 19.3 per cent higher than in 2024," Byrne said. This is likely to lead to an increase in overall card usage as Leap card users make the switch to pay-as-you-go transactions, she said.
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