THE NUMBER of Visa cards held by Irish shoppers jumped by over 65 per cent to 3 million last year, but the amount spent on the cards remained flat at €8.8 billion.

Visa Europe, which on Tuesday said spending on its cards across Europe last year rose by more than 16 per cent to €1 trillion, said the growth in Irish Visa usage came as Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB both adopted Visa Debit as their debit cards. Bank of Ireland will also switch its Laser cards to Visa Debit in 2011.

There was a 12.2 per cent increase in Irish transactions, the company said, indicating shoppers were using their cards every day rather than keeping them exclusively for large purchases.

On the issue of Visa charges for retailers, Visa’s Conor Langford said charges incurred by retailers arose from a contractual agreement between them and their banks, rather than from their relationship with Visa. “We would advise all retailers to discuss their . . . arrangements with their banks.”