Using almost a third of all payments now being done with contactless cards, Britain is moving quickly toward becoming a cashless society.
Cash usage decreased by 1.7% last year, with just one in six payments being made using notes and coins.
According to predictions from the banking industry trade group UK Finance, just 6% of all transactions will be done using actual currency by 2031.
According to its study, 23.1 million users, an increase from 13.7 million in 2020, only used cash once a month or not at all in 2017.
But according to experts, it is on the rise this year as struggling people resort to cash to help them budget more effectively amid the crisis in the cost of living.
‘There is now evidence in the first half of 2022 that cash usage has increased for the first time in almost a decade, as the cost of living crisis strikes and people return to the safety of cash as a budgeting tool,’ said Natalie Ceeney, chairperson of the Cash Action Group.
People who depend on cash are often older, poorer, or more vulnerable, and many of them are unable to “move digital,” as is now well acknowledged.
During the epidemic, contactless card payments exploded as merchants tried to promote social segregation.
“Payment patterns normally tend to shift slowly as we all acquire habits regarding the way we pay for goods,” said Adrian Buckle, director of research at UK Finance.
The epidemic, he said, “increased the speed of change,” especially in terms of lowering cash payments.