APACS shows how Brits use cash

UK payments service APACs has given an overview of how Brits use cash to coincide with the release of a new £20 note. The figures show the increasing popularity of plastic card payments. However, cash remains popular too, with no sign that Brits are abandoning ready money in favour of plastic. Cash accounts fro 63 per cent of day to day payments by volume, and 96 per cent of all payments under £5 in value were made with cash last year. Most of the transactions are made in retail outlets, with this sector taking 60 per cent of our cash transactions. Other locations where cash is in heavy use include pubs, clubs, meals out and takeaways. Eighty per cent of payments for travel and entertainment are made by cash.

Over £270 billion is spent in cash each year, though for the last three years card payments have overtaken cash in terms of value. The number of cash transactions has declined over the years as fewer and fewer of us are paid in cash. Much of the cash we do use now comes out of cash machines. In 2005, Brits took £179.8 billion from ATMs compared to £80.2 billion in 1996 and by 2016, we are expected to get nearly 80 per cent of our cash this way. The average weekly withdrawal is around £60 and many of us still carry cash for small value transactions.

Sandra Quinn, Director of Communications at APACS says: ‘Although the way we are using cash is changing significantly, we expect the likelihood of Britain becoming a cashless society in the foreseeable future to be similar to us all working in paperless offices.  We have been using notes in Britain for over 300 years and we expect that we will continue to do so in significant amounts for a long time to come.’