One in 10 UK adults rarely uses cash at all – but one in 25 still relies on it as their main spending method, a report has found.
UK Finance said 10% of consumers – equating to 5.4 million people across the country – made one or no cash payments per month in 2018.
This is a jump of two million people compared with 2017, when 3.4 million rarely used cash.
Meanwhile, 4% of consumers mainly used cash for their spending in 2018, although most paid bills using other methods. This equates to 1.9 million people who mainly spend using cash.
Cash was used for 28% of payments in 2018 and is forecast to still be used for one in 10 payments in a decade’s time.
But as recently as 2008, cash made up six in 10 (60%) payments.
The adoption of technology accepting contactless payments on public transport, and an increase in the single payment limit on contactless cards to £30 in 2015, has helped to fuel the popularity of this payment method.
More than one in five (21%) payments made by consumers in 2018 were made with contactless cards in 2018, up from 16% in 2017.
Nearly seven in 10 (69%) adults across the UK now use contactless payments.
Older customers are increasingly embracing the technology, with more than three-fifths (61%) of over-65s making contactless payments in 2018, up from 50% in 2017, UK Finance said.
Its UK Payment Markets report found that nearly half (48%) of UK adults used mobile banking in 2018, up from 41% the previous year.
Here are the percentages of adults who use contactless across the UK, according to UK Finance:
– South East and East Anglia, 72%
– Midlands, 71%
– London, 70%
– Wales, 70%
– Scotland, 69%
– South West, 67%
– North East and Yorkshire, 66%
– Northern Ireland, 66%
– North West, 58%
And here are the average numbers of payments UK adults made each month in 2018:
– 28 card payments, of which 11 were contactless
– 17 cash payments
– Six direct debits
– 1.3 payments via online banking or mobile banking
– 0.8 standing orders
– 0.3 cheques
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Source: Yahoo Finance