According to the Frankfurt-based company EURO Kartensysteme, people in Germany paid with card more than ever in 2024.

Germany paid with card more than ever in 2024

7,9 billion card payments were made in Germany in 2024, a higher national annual figure than ever before. The number of card payments was 5,6 percent higher than in 2023, the previous record year.

EURO Kartensysteme (ESK), a joint enterprise of German banks which is based in Frankfurt, added that the surge in contactless card payments seen during the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow.

Nearly nine out of 10 card payments made in Germany in 2024 were contactless. Contactless payments also hit a record in December 2024, during which 86,8 percent of all card payments in Germany were contactless.

How much is Germany spending with card?

According to ESK, people in Germany are increasingly using bank cards to make smaller purchases. 

In 2023, the average card payment was 40,69 euros. In 2024, this fell below the 40-euro mark for the first time, dropping to 38,85 euros. Over the course of 2024, people in Germany used their cards to charge a collective 307 billion euros to their bank accounts.

How does Germany compare to other European countries?

But in Germany and continent-wide, consumers still have a soft spot for cash payments. According to the DeNederlandscheBank, 52 percent of point of sale (POS) payments were cash payments across the Eurozone in 2024.

Germany was slightly above average, 53 percent of POS payments were cash payments in 2024. Cash POS payments were more popular in Greece, Portugal and Latvia (54 percent), Croatia (55 percent), Spain and Slovakia (57 percent), Italy (61 percent), Austria (62 percent), Slovenia (64 percent) and Malta (67 percent).

People in Finland and the Netherlands paid with cash the least in 2024; less than 30 percent of POS payments in both countries were cash payments.

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