The number of card payments made by consumers and businesses in the euro area has increased by more than two-fold during the last ten years, reveals a report by the European Central Bank.
As per the statistics, an average of 121 card payments per capita was recorded last year, versus 56 in 2008.
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Despite a rise in the number of card payments, the average value of each card payment decreased from €54 in 2008 to €44 in 2018.
Card payments accounted for approximately half of the total number of non-cash payments across the single-currency area last year.
Credit transfers and direct debits, which made up about 23% each, were the second and third most common non-cash payment methods. E-money and cheques together accounted for nearly 7% of the non-cash payments.
The popularity of each type of payment service, according to the study, was quite different across euro area countries.
Last year, card payments made up over 70% of all non-cash payments in Portugal, compared with approximately 23% in Germany.
Credit transfer was found to be very popular in Slovakia, accounting for about 44% of the total number of non-cash payments last year. In comparison, just 2.4% of transactions were made through credit transfer in Luxembourg.
Over the last decade, cheques’ popularity has waned rapidly, and it accounted for just 2.3% of total non-cash payments in 2018, compared with 8% in 2008.
France contributed nearly 85% of all the cheques written in 2018 in the euro area.
