Active cards
The total number of active debit and credit cards in issue stood at 6.2 million at the end of Q4 2019, with debit cards accounting for 75 per cent.
Over Q4 2019 debit cards were used in 305 million individual PoS transactions, with an average spend of €41.53 per transaction.
In comparison, the number of transactions with individual credit cards totalled €42 million, with an average spend of €74.60 per transaction.
Debit card PoS spending rose by 18.5 per cent in year-on-year terms in December 2019, to over €4.8 billion.
Credit card spending increased by 8.4 per cent in year-on-year terms, to €1.1 billion end-December 2019.
Growth in debit card PoS expenditures was recorded across all categories.
Groceries
Spending in the retail sector increased by 12.6 per cent (€293 million) year-on-year in December, with groceries/perishables accounting for 36 per cent of this increase.
The services sector grew by an annual rate of 20 per cent (€145 million), the social sector by 19 per cent (€91 million).
Utilities recorded the highest annual growth rate of all debit card sub-categories with an increase of 24 per cent.
Credit card spending also experienced growth in all sub-categories year-on-year. Total spending in the social sector increased by 9 per cent, while retail and the services sectors grew by 7 and 11 per cent respectively.
Retail
Within the retail sector, electrical goods experienced the largest increase of any credit card sub-category, with an increase of 18 per cent on the year in December 2019.
In total, 75 per cent of credit card spending was split between the retail (46 per cent) and services sectors (29 per cent) in December 2019. In comparison, retail spending accounted for 54 per cent of all debit card PoS spending, which was more than three times the debit card expenditure on services.
Card expenditure (including ATM transactions) outside Ireland averaged €636 million over the three months to end-December 2019, up 7.6 per cent on the same period the previous year.
Abroad
Expenditure abroad accounted for 8 per cent of total debit card spending, and 16 per cent of credit card expenditure in Q4 2019.
Debit card expenditure abroad (including ATM transactions) amounted to €1.4 billion in the last quarter of 2019, an increase of 10 per cent on the same quarter the previous year. Credit card expenditure abroad rose to €497 million in Q4 2019.