Tapping may be easy and convenient, but we should be careful not to abandon cash, Independent TD Mattie McGrath has warned.

A new report from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) has shown that consumers made 1.4 billion contactless payments in the last 12 months.

According to the report, more than half of all contactless payments are now made using mobile wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, rather than cards. 

People paying with their phone also spend more money, as the average phone payment was shown to be 25% higher than those made by card.

Deputy Mattie McGrath warned that we should be more cautious when it comes to moving away from cash payments.

“If we have cyber attacks, digital crashes, power outages,  we won’t have our mobile phones then,” Deputy McGrath told Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

He noted that cyber-attacks have already caused chaos around the world and are still a very real threat to security.

Deputy McGrath said people should be cautious about being over reliant on digital payments.

Young people

He said he is particularly concerned for young people and urged people all over Ireland to always keep a bit of cash on hand.

“I’m just concerned for the young people especially coming up that they won't be having feelings of cash,” he said.

He said tapping makes money too easy to spend, and our wallets can suffer as a result.

“We don’t know what we're spending on a night out – there's just tap, tap, tap, tap.”

A woman using a smartphone with digital wallet application. Image: Prostock-studio / Alamy Stock Photo

Discrimination

Deputy McGrath also spoke out against “discrimination against people with cash”.

He said cash remains legal tender and although we live in a digital world, not everyone has a phone or even a bank card.

‘Money Doctors’ founder John Lowe told the show that some countries in Europe - including France and Spain - have made it illegal to refuse sales in cash.

Ireland has introduced laws to ensure access to cash is guaranteed, but there are currently no laws forcing shops to accept the tender.

Illegal sales

However, some have argued that cash is now mostly used in the ‘black market’, as payments are not traceable.

Deputy McGrath rejected the idea that cash can make life easier for criminals insisting that the likes of drug dealers will find “very creative ways to manage their merchandise” no matter the payment type.

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