The number of payments made by direct debit pin card rose by 9.5% to €1.59bn in 2007, the highest growth since 2002.

Use of the pre-paid chipknip card rose by 6.4%, according to annual figures published on Monday by Currence, owner of both payment methods.
The pin pass was most used in supermarkets (35%), followed by petrol stations (9.5%) and clothes shops (8.9%).
Currence expects pin transactions to rise by another billion euros over the coming years because people are pinning smaller amounts. In 2002 the average amount pinned was €47. This dropped to €43.75 last year.