UK consumers ready to say goodbye to cash

The report, called Lost in Transaction, uncovered the rapid move towards a cash-free economy with a third (34%) of Britons only visiting an ATM once a month or less, and one in six saying they rarely carry cash at all, with that figure rising to one in five for under 34s. The research data shows that 65% of people carry less cash now than they did in 2016, signalling a growing trend towards going cashless. 

The comprehensive study, undertaken in the UK, US and Canada, maps attitudes to money and consumer buying behaviour, and examines how cash is merging with digital formats. It reveals increased consumer confidence in mobile shopping, the start of a shift to new payment methods such as cryptocurrencies and the potential for retailers to lose relevance without the right payment mix for customers. 

New options of storing and using money, such as mobile wallets, now adopted by 24% of the population, allows consumers to give up physical currency. 12% of those surveyed said that they use cryptocurrencies for payments. 

Contactless payment methods have furthered this trend, with three out of five consumers regularly using it for payment, 69% citing it as more convenient than cash, and 44% stating they preferred to shop in places that take contactless. 

Digital money, however, does not enjoy the public’s full confidence. 68% of consumers worry about the security of contactless, and another 58% are concerned that they will be charged the wrong amount when using it. There are also more basic security issues to overcome for mobile wallets with significant concerns around people’s handsets. Nearly a third (29%) of people said they worried about their phone being stolen and over a quarter (28%) did not even want to take their mobile out to pay. This is despite nearly two thirds (63%) saying they are increasingly confident about using their mobile phone for shopping. 

To read the full report, which includes comparisons between consumer attitudes to cash and alternative payment methods in the US, UK and Canada, click here.