Australians made about $250,000 worth of eftpos transactions almost every minute of every day during the month of July, setting a new record for eftpos transaction volumes outside of the traditionally busy Christmas period.
Over 200 million transactions were made during the month, representing more than an 11 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2011. The value of the eftpos transactions during July was more than $11.7 billion.
eftpos managing director Bruce Mansfield said the only other time eftpos transaction volumes had exceeded 200 million in a single month was in December 2011, during the busy Christmas retail period.
“In July, eftpos volumes increased for purchases as well as cash out, as more Australians used eftpos to access their own money at the checkout as an alternative to ATMs,” he said.
“During July, there were 23.2 million cash out transaction on eftpos, representing a value of more than $1.4 billion and a 5 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2011.
“We also saw a large increase in purchases on eftpos, exceeding $10 billion in value and 8.7 per cent higher than July 2011.
“The eftpos network now carries a little over half of the card transactions in Australia.
“This demonstrates the increasing role that debit and eftpos play in the Australian payments landscape, as more people move to take control of their spending and away from credit.”