Around 64 per cent of adults in the UK haven’t completed a purchase with cash in the last 12 months according to research by www.merchantadviceservice.co.uk.
Up to 61 per cent of adults have also admitted they have adopted a new payment method over the last year, 77 per cent of those made a contactless payment using smart tech for the first time.
The study found that 86 per cent of adults favour contactless payment methods over other options such as chip and pin, with debit or credit cards being the preferred methods.
Smartphone payment followed with 25 per cent of adults preferring to use their phones to pay through services such as Apple Pay, or Google Pay.
Two fifths of adults still have cash in their home that they’re planning to put in the bank or gift as birthday gifts.
READ MORE: 52% of UK businesses want to do away with cash entirely
The research found that 78 per cent of adults don’t want to be handling cash at the moment as a result of the pandemic.
About 53 per cent don’t want to use ATMs and 33 per cent feel it is more convenient to carry a bank card or a smartphone than a wallet or purse with cash in.
Over half the adults surveyed said they would continue to use contactless payment as their preferred checkout method with non-essential retail reopening this week.
One in five adults claimed they would opt to keep money in the bank and continue with their cashless lifestyle
“Cash has become somewhat redundant since the UK first went into lockdown and most shops, other than supermarkets and essential retail, were forced to close their doors, co-founder of Merchant Advice Service Libby James said.
“Contactless payment methods have been gaining in popularity for many years, but the past year has seen many more trying out the technology as it allows them to reduce contact with others, helping to reduce the chances of an infection or disease, such as Covid-19, being transmitted so easily.”
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Not sure what ‘poll’ is being used, but my experience is that the cash tills have significant queues and the card tills are nearly empty! It seems that customers are using cash as much as ever in shops and supermarkets, a number of people have commented that the feel that contactless cards are not safe to carry around, and will not consider using any shop that does not accept cash payment.