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IRISH PEOPLE are beginning to shun cash in exchange for paying with debit cards – but are still lagging behind their European counterparts, new data has shown.
Figures published by the Irish Payment Services Organisation showed that Irish people had made 10.7 million online transactions in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of over a sixth on the same period from last year.
2.8 million people in Ireland – almost the entirety of the adult population – are now registered for phone or internet banking, IPSO said.
While the volume of cash withdrawn by Irish people from ATMs dropped by just under 12 per cent in 2010, ATM withdrawals still totalled €22.3 billion last year.
That volume of withdrawals meant that Irish people, on average, withdrew €5,000 each at ATMs last year – the highest of any EU country. The average account holder made 40 withdrawals over the course of the year.
Figures already garnered for the opening months of 2011 had already shown that the downward trend of ATM withdrawals had continued.
IPSO said the transition to electronic payments could help to save €1bn to the Irish economy.
Chief executive Pat McLoughlin remarked: “The fact that there is a clear trend towards greater usage of debit cards is a sign that Ireland is embracing a new era in consumer transactions.
“It is essential that Irish consumers continue to take the lead from their European counterparts in switching to more efficient payment methods as this will positively impact on Ireland’s economic competitiveness”.
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The advantage taking money out of ATMs currently is that the transaction shows up instantly on internet banking (for me anyway) whereas transactions done with a Laser or creditcard take multiple days to show up, making it hard to keep track of your budget. Maybe if the banks did something about this, which is clearly in their capability seeing as they know exactly how much money you have at any one time, more transactions would be done by card.
Pieter – it’s strange you should say that, it’s precisely the opposite for me: Laser shows up immediately (though credit cards don’t, because I’m AIB so my CC balance only updates every day) but ATM withdrawals can often take a couple of days to show up. Who are you with?
I’m also with AIB. Strange that we get opposite behaviours on the site…
I’m with AIB and my ESB bill only came out of my account today, while on my ESB account it said it was paid on Friday last.
BOI and I find laser transactions can be delayed by upto 5 days on my statements online
I’m AIB and with Laser the transaction shows up about 3 business days after the actual purchase… fine for me when pay day is getting close and my balance is low… but annoying when trying to budget things out. From what I know though if you tell AIB this is happening they will sort it out (at least one of my friends reported it to her branch and it was resolved)
I have the same experience as Pieter, and find it really annoying also. ATM transactions within Ireland show up instantly and POS purchases (for example in Tesco, Shops etc.) often take 3 to 5 working days to debit. Often find myself ringing or calling into AIB to see how much is pending to leave my account.
Still too many premises won’t allow card transactions for under €10. This bugs me. If they won’t take a card, I go elsewhere.
Restaurants need to allow for tips to be put on the card too. I try not to carry cash because I’ll spend it!
Try explaining that to Luas, who won’t take cards for transactions under €10… or over €50. Want a monthly ticket? That’ll be €84 in cash, please.
I do the very same thing when they say €10 minimum. Also, most restaurants do accept a tip from laser but a thing i find very annoying and im seeing more more of is when they hand you the machine to put your pin in but its on the tip screen.
I don’t usually add the tip to the bill in resturants when paying by laser, as I had heard that the staff more than likely won’t see any of it – I always think they would prefer the cash on the table!
That are few things more frustrating than waiting for some eegit to pay for their coffee with their card. More places need to bring in the minimum transaction in my opinion.
@GavanReilly, would I not be right in saying that LUAS now accept cards for over 50euro, since they have introduced the new chip and pin technology on the green line anyway.. Although I do agree, it makes no sense!
Unfortunately, laser is not a great debit card because you cannot use it anyehere but ireland, well AIB anyway. Maybe when visa debit is introduced we will see a greater usage in online and non-cash transactions.
I’m with UB and I’ve had a Visa Debit for the past 4 months
Stephen you can use the newer AIb laser cards anywhere that maestro is accpeted…i used mine in the Philppines earlier this year :)
@Stephen. I also have an AIB laser card and have used it in several countries ( UK & Netherlands). However, there’s no doubt that the introduction of Visa debit is welcome, though with AIB and BOI this may not happen until the second half of next year.
I used my AIB Debit Card (Laser) on numerous occassions in London, US, Turkey, Holland etc. The blue one?
Used my aib laser card in France couple of weeks ago.
““It is essential that Irish consumers continue to take the lead from their European counterparts in switching to more efficient payment methods as this will positively impact on Ireland’s economic competitiveness”.”
Can someone explain how this might be? After all using card payments leaves money moving through the banking system at a slower rate than cash transactions…and cash transactions do not incur handling charges for business owners.
€5000 a year in cash withdrawals is below 100E a week. I don’t think that’s all that significant.
Does IPSO benefit more from electronic payments than ATM withdrawals? And incidentally, of those online transactions that are increasing in number, how many of them are to Irish companies and of those which are not, how many might be price based?
He who controls the money controls the power. Every time we erode the use of cash, we loose a little more freedom. Your also putting cashiers and security companies out of business.
Cash moves slower through the economy as it has to be physically transferred. There is a cost for businesses moving large amounts as they have to pay for cash escorts. They also have to pay for security on their premises to protect cash.
Another reason for doing away with cash is the cost of producing copper coins is higher than their actual value due to the price of copper.
Which shows you our money is junk. The value of the metal was the value of the currency …
The cost to retailers for handling electronic payments is actually significantly higher than cash. A cash lodgement costs .03% whereas a laser card transaction is 16cent, visa debit 1.4% and some credit cards (business cards) up to 2.4%. There is very little incentive for retailers to accept card payments. And now that banks are phasing out laser cards in favour of visa debit cards there is even less of an incentive to accept electronic payment. Finally retailers can lodge cash straight into their accounts, whereas with electronic payments that payment takes 3 working days to land in the retailers account. The banks are skimming big time.
Some places in Ireland still don’t take Laser cards…Seriously! in 2011!
Still, I use cards 95% of the time.
I went to my local branch of Carry Out (off licence) at the weekend, which has been open for 4 maybe 5 months. They didn’t have the facility to accept any type of card payment. In 2011 not good enough ..
For me, cards are still too slow. Given the progress in computing and communications how are cards no faster today than ten years ago?
The banks are skimming, using your cash to play the markets. This also happens overnight, have you ever noticed you online bank account often shows a lesser balance or lodgements that you made on a day have temporarily disappeared from 11pm-5am, the banks often withdraw people’s funds over night to use for speculating in Asian markets or for foreign exchange investments and then quietly re-lodge your funds before 6am.
Paid over 320e via phone into my UB credit card at the beginning of the month. It never reached the credit card but was taken out of my current account. They’re "looking into it". "should take 4-5 days to locate the money".
I prefer using cash. It feels more like I’m losing something when I hand it over. Plus I’m fairly anonymous in what I buy.
I am with AIB and have two separate current accounts – I use one for work purposes. They both come with laser cards. One of them reduces the balance straight away once I swipe the laser card, the other makes me wait days and days before it shows a reduced balance. Two identical accounts, two identical laser cards, completely different results.
Why pay them?
I find that hard to believe, are u sure their terminal wasn’t "temporarily down", as this often happens when there is a problem with phone lines or the banks IT sys crashes. What Carryout was it cos I gave used a good few of them in the munster area and they all accept credit cards
@ Gerry b . I won’t give u the details of the particular branch but u can rest assured that it’s a genuine case. I have no grievance against the chain (good deals to be had there in fact) but the manager on duty said that they hadn’t got round to installing the requisite card terminal…
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