Highlights

• The way that we make payments has changed considerably in recent years. A growing share of payments is made using mobile phones, both at physical points of sale and online.
• Most payments are made at physical points of sale. Points of sale include shops, restaurants and public transport. Physical payment cards are used in most of these payments but the number of card payments made through mobile apps is increasing rapidly. Our latest survey shows that 30 percent of payments at physical points of sale were made via various mobile payment platforms.
• The scale of online purchases has increased significantly over many years. Most online purchases are settled using a payment card, either directly using a physical card or via various mobile payment platforms. One in three online purchases are now settled using mobile phones, and the use is on the rise. One in four online purchases were settled using an invoice.
• Different card systems have different areas of use. BankAxept cannot be used to make regular online purchases and could not be used for mobile payments until Spring 2024. The strong growth in online purchases and mobile payments has led to BankAxept payments accounting for an increasingly smaller share of card payments. In 2024, BankAxept accounted for 49 percent of card payments. BankAxept is now able to be used in a range of different mobile payment platforms, which is likely to affect developments ahead.
• Norway is one of the countries in the world with the highest annual use of payment cards per inhabitant. On average, each Norwegian used a card 572 times in 2024. In Germany and multiple Mediterranean countries, the use of payment cards is much lower than this, but the use is increasing rapidly.
• Cash use has been declining for a long time but has remained stable in recent years. Our latest survey shows that 2 percent of survey participants used cash the last time they paid at a physical point of sale.
• Cash withdrawals continue to fall. At the same time, an increasing share of total cash withdrawals is made in shops. The number of ATMs is declining and fewer are owned by banks. In 2024, there were 1129 ATMs in Norway in total, compared with 1168 in 2023.