Tap to Pay Is Quietly Taking Over Big-Ticket Purchases

Michael Johnson · 2026-10-13

Contactless payments are no longer just for your morning coffee. In Ireland, consumers are now tapping their cards and phones for purchases that used to make them pause and reach for a different payment method. Data from Clover shows that contactless payments account for nearly half of all transactions in Ireland valued between €50 and €100 (about $55 to $110). That's up from 38% in 2024. For purchases over €100 (roughly $110), the share has climbed to 35%, compared with 24% two years ago. The hesitation people once felt about tapping for higher-priced items? It's fading fast. "This mirrors the experience that we've seen from contactless growth here in the U.S. and other regions where it's been rolled out on a large scale," said Don Apgar, Director of Merchant Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. "Convenience is always top-of-mind for consumers, but so is security." ### Digital Wallets Are Fueling the Shift The trend isn't limited to Ireland. In the UK, the £100 limit on contactless card payments was scrapped in March, though the change applied only to physical cards. Mobile payments were already exempt from the cap because phones and other devices use built-in security features like PINs or biometrics to authenticate transactions. "What the contactless numbers don't show is how many of those transactions were initiated via digital wallets and not the cards themselves," Apgar said. "While chip and PIN has been the gold standard for transaction security, unlocking your phone to use your digital wallet provides an even higher level of security with improved convenience as well. For the first time in payments, consumers don't need to compromise transaction security for convenience, since contactless transactions deliver both." ### Cash Is Fading Fast Contactless payments now account for 83% of all transactions in 2026, though they remain more common for smaller purchases. The average value of a non-contactless transaction was €203.09 (about $220), compared with just €28.89 (around $31) for contactless payments. Cash, meanwhile, accounted for only 5% of transactions, even in settings traditionally associated with smaller purchases. In pubs, bars, and nightclubs, 90% of purchases are now made using contactless methods. At retail outlets, the share stands at four in five, with cash accounting for just 3.3% of transactions. That shift is more pronounced in Ireland than in the U.S., where contactless methods account for 60% of transactions. But the direction is clear: tapping to pay is becoming the default, even for bigger purchases. ### What This Means for Businesses For merchants, the message is simple: if you're not set up to accept contactless payments, you're already behind. Consumers expect speed and security, and they're increasingly unwilling to compromise either. Whether it's a $5 sandwich or a $500 gadget, the tap is becoming the norm. And as digital wallets continue to gain traction, the line between convenience and security keeps blurring. The days of worrying about whether a tap is safe enough for a large purchase are fading—just like cash itself.