July saw most transactions on record for AIB customers in

Ellen O'Donoghue

More than 45,000 AIB customers made 597,000 transactions in during July, according to AIB's latest spend trend report.

This is the most transactions on record within the space of a month for customers of the bank in , including last year’s Rugby World Cup.

The top category of spending in was restaurants, followed by groceries, except for customers from Co Laois, whose top categories were groceries, followed by restaurants.

For customers from both Co Cavan and Co Monaghan, their top spend category was restaurants, while their second category was campgrounds.

Overall spending for the month was up 9 per cent compared to July 2023.

Back in Ireland, hotel spending was up 7 per cent month on month for July, and was up 4 per cent from July 2023.

The hotel spend offsets the 10 per cent decrease in pubs and off-licences and the 6 per cent decrease in restaurants month on month.

However, this could also be attributed to July having six weekends while June had five.

Friday, July 26th was the highest spend of the year to date in hotels.

The 35–44-year-old age group picked up the tab most in hotels, followed by 45–54-year-olds and 25-34 year olds.

Adrian Moynihan, head of consumer at AIB, said that the July spending data shows a number of seasonal movements.

“July is a hugely important month for the hospitality sector, and hotels in Ireland are proving extremely popular this year. We’ve also seen the largest monthly spend by AIB card customers on record in , while back to school uniform spending peaked on July 30th,” he said.

“It is also heartening to see that card spend on electrical vehicle charging rose 8% month on month and 45% year-on-year as customers play their part in driving the transition to a lower carbon future. These data insights are crucial for businesses to help them plan accordingly.”

The highest daily cinema trend of the year was Saturday, July 20th.

Duty-free stores had their best day of the year to date on Friday, July 5th, while the best day of the year to date for railways was Monday, July 1st.