Cash or card? Do you know how we Spaniards pay?
22/04/2025
Cash or card? Have you ever wondered how we Spaniards pay? According to payment statistics, the use of non-cash methods grew in the first half of 2024 by 11.4% compared to the same period of the previous year, highlighting a trend towards digitalization in transactions.
In total, 8,669 million payments by digital means were made in the reference period for an amount of 6.1 billion euros, representing an increase of 5.4%.
Card payments
Card payments were the favorite option of the Spaniards. And in particular, contactless operations showed remarkable growth.
- Volume of operations: Card payments accounted for 64.2% of total cashless transactions. This represents a growth of 13.3% compared to last year and a total of 5,562 million operations.
- Total amount: The total amount was €177.2 billion. The average transaction was 32 euros.
- Contactless payments: Contactless card transactions increased by 18%, representing 93.7% of total face-to-face card payments.
Transfers and direct debits
Credit transfers and direct debits also increased, reflecting consumer confidence in these payment methods.
- Transfers: The number grew by 15.5%, reaching 1,416 million transactions, with a total amount of 5.4 trillion euros, and represents 88.4% of the total amount of cashless transactions. Cards are therefore the most widely used means of making small payments, while transfers are used for larger transactions.
- Direct dues: Direct debits increased by 2.6%, with 1,122 million transactions and a total amount of 338 billion euros.
Cards, payment terminals and e-money transactions
As is logical in view of the above data, the number of cards and payment terminals, the dataphones, has also expanded considerably, further facilitating modern and efficient transactions.
- Cards: The number of payment cards grew by 4.5%, reaching 103 million, which is equivalent to an average of 2 cards per inhabitant.
- Point-of-sale (POS) terminals: The number of point-of-sale terminals increased by 14% to approximately 4.7 million, with 96% of them accepting contactless payments.
Electronic money transactions: Transactions made with electronic money experienced an increase of 30.6%, reaching 132 million transactions and a total amount of 6.9 billion euros.
These statistics reflect the change in consumption and payment habits of citizens towards greater digitalization, although cash remains one of the preferred options.
More information: https://www.bde.es/wbe/en/noticias-eventos/actualidad-banco-espana/estadisticas-sobre-pagos-en-espana-primer-semestre-de-2024.htmlAbre en ventana nueva
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