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Four in ten think they won’t need cash in ten years’ time

Kit Klarenberg
Written By:
Kit Klarenberg
Posted:
Updated:
27/08/2015

Many believe they’ll have no need for cash in the near future due to the rise of new payment technologies, according to Lloyds Bank research.

An increasing number of UK consumers are comfortable with the prospect of a cashless future, with 25 per cent believing they will no longer need cash to pay for goods or services in five years’ time, 39 per cent in ten years’ time, and 48 per cent in 20 years’ time.

Recent UK Cards Association data indicates shoppers used credit and debit cards for 1.1 billion transactions in May, up ten percent in a year, as contactless payments and other new technologies increasingly replace the use of cash in low value transactions.

48 per cent expect to use cashless payments on a daily basis in the next decade, 27 per cent think they will make payments using wearable tech such as watches or wrist bands, 22 per cent think they will be regularly using their fingerprint, and 7 per cent using a microchip embedded in their body.

While mobile payments are expanding in volume, and 34 per cent expect to use a mobile device as a day-to-day method of payment in the next five years, 47 per cent are unconvinced mobile will ever be a primary payment method.

Of those who don’t currently use mobile payments, 44 per cent do not because they don’t believe it a secure or safe payment method, 17 per cent because they don’t know anything about mobile payments, and 16 per cent because they don’t know how – 18 per cent simply don’t have the right phone.

Despite this outlook, a majority think they will still be using credit and debit cards (63 per cent) as well as cash (52 per cent) as day-to-day methods of payments by 2025, and 9 per cent think they will still use cheques in 2025.

Rates of cashless payments are inversely correlated to age, with 50 per cent of those aged between 55 and 75 believing they will always need to have cash, compared to 40 per cent of those aged 18-54. There is also a slight gender disparity in the findings, with 46 per cent of women believing they will always need to have cash in the future compared to 40 per cent of men.

Claire Garrod, head of personal current accounts at Lloyds Bank, said: “Whether it’s contactless, wearable tech or fingerprint ID, people are increasingly expecting to use new technologies to make payments rather than rely on cash. The benefits of these new developments are gradually being understood and embraced by banks and their customers, to make payments more convenient without compromising security.”

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