Yahoo Finance All the ways Brits are clinging onto cash
Brits are not ready to say goodbye to cash, despite experts suggesting that we’re heading towards a “cashless society”.
An independent review of consumer spending revealed on Wednesday that up to eight million Brits would suffer in a cashless society. This follows an announcement from banking and finance trade body UK Finance in June 2017 that revealed cash use has halved over the past decade, while debit card payments have become the most popular form of transaction.
But the Access to Cash survey of 2,000 representative UK consumers found that 97% of the population carry cash on them and use it in some aspect of their day-to-day lives.
Brits still rely heavily on cash for gifts and donations due to the fact that recipients often only take cash, as well as the tangible nature of cash as a gift.
Three quarters of all charity donations are made through cash, and almost all money given to homeless people and street buskers is in cash.
READ MORE: These people would suffer most from a cashless society
Tradespeople stand to be disproportionately affected as the UK abandons cash, according to the report, with three quarters of all cleaners, 80% of gardeners and a massive 85% of window cleaners being paid cash-in-hand.
Cash is also still considered a necessity when it comes to paying for public transport. The majority of taxi fares and bus tickets are paid for in cash, as well as a third of all train tickets and a quarter of all petrol purchases.
A lot of Brits use cash to pay for groceries, with over 70% of all lunchtime sandwich purchases being made in cash, over half of all Brits using cash when they pick up milk and bread, and a third still using it to pay for their entire weekly shop.
Small purchases are often bought with cash, especially when it comes to shopping and leisure. A third of UK consumers still regularly buy clothes with cash and 40% of them use cash to pay for cinema tickets.
Additionally, although most people in the UK rely on digital services such as Direct Debits for household costs, over 10% still use cash to pay their rent, TV licences and utility bills.
Most Brits even admit to keeping cash in their homes, saying that it provides them with peace of mind (43%), they need it to pay tradesmen (40%) or it’s more convenient when it comes to settling small debts with friends and family (16%). A small 3% confess to not trusting banks.
