The option to pay in cash

Issue 643: 3 September 2024

Thank you to Graham Mott and LINK for allowing Payments:Unpacked to publish this guest blog.

Most UK consumers still want the option to pay in cash

The majority of UK adults value being given the option to pay in cash, according to latest research by LINK, the UK’s cash access and ATM network.

Whilst contactless card and mobile phone payments represent the most the popular ways to pay (42% of adults stated a preference for contactless card payments, and 24% for digital wallets such as Apple or Google Pay), 81% of adults think that being given the choice to pay in cash remains important.

This reflects a preference for choice across the payments landscape and challenges the assumption that the emergence of new and innovative ways to pay will put an end to the UK’s cash economy. Overall, nearly three-quarters (73%) of adults said that they had used cash to pay for a purchase in the past two weeks, consistent with cash spending statistics since February 2020.

Cash is as important, if not more important, for the youngest generation as it is for other adults  

Cash is typically thought of as the preserve of older generations, vulnerable people and the financially excluded, and the phasing out of cash as the younger, more digitally literate generation grows up is often assumed.

Whilst the importance of cash for the over 55s is reinforced by this latest research (87% think that it is important to be given the option to pay in cash), additional demographic trends emerge, revealing that cash is as important, and in some cases more important, for the youngest generation of adults as it is for other demographic groups.