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UPDATE: Slightly fewer card payments on Saturday 24 December than on record day 23 December

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UPDATE: Friday 23 December remains the busiest day for card payments at Dutch points of sale. On Saturday 24 December, roughly 21.8 million card payments were recorded in physical shops, with a total value of approximately €652 million. Saturday did have the busiest peak, with 900 card payments per second at around 12:45 pm. Friday’s peak was at around 12:15 pm, with approximately 800 transactions per second.

On Friday 23 December, a new daily record for card payments at Dutch shop checkouts was set for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with an estimated 22.2 million transactions worth roughly €740 million.

Woman in hat and scarf looks at Christmas decorations on the busy market stall, with bags and gold-colored garland in her arm.

In 2019, the last year before the coronavirus pandemic, around 21 million card transactions were processed on Saturday 21 December, with a total value of approximately €675 million. In previous years, the daily record always fell on the final Saturday before Christmas. It was therefore possible that the record would be broken again on Saturday 24 December.

Across the entire week from Saturday 17 to Friday 23 December, more than 121 million payments were made by debit or credit card, with a value of more than €3.5 billion. In an ordinary week in November, there were more than 103 million card payments worth over €2.6 billion.

Almost 32 million purchases were paid for with iDEAL and credit cards in online shops during the past week, 20% more than in an ordinary week in September, with a value of almost €3 billion, 35% higher than in an ordinary week. Online records, however, are not set just before Christmas but at the end of November, around Black Friday.

Around the festive period, the Dutch Payments Association reports estimated daily transaction volumes and values for debit cards, credit cards and iDEAL. The estimates are based on measurements by payment processor Worldline , credit card issuer International Card Services and Currence , the owner of the iDEAL payment scheme.

On average, roughly a quarter of all iDEAL payments are made in online shops, in e-commerce. Around a quarter are for mobile payment requests, such as Tikkies, and half are for other online payments, including municipal taxes, online invoices and topping up mobile phone credit. However, the differences between the festive period and ordinary days can be attributed entirely to e-commerce.

About 8% of all purchases from online shops are paid for by credit card. Credit cards account for around 15% of online-shop turnover because they are used mainly for more expensive online purchases. (Source: Thuiswinkel.org )

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