For many of us, cash remains the most important thing in our life and while there are many ways that you can pay for something, a lot of people prefer the feeling and comfort of having cash in your pocket, wallet or purse. However, this may not always be the case as a recent study indicates that young adults are moving away from using cash.
The study was undertaken by UK Finance and their findings suggest that 19% of people who are aged between 25 and 24 years old are reliant on digital payments and cards for the day to day spending. The study found that these people use cash very rarely, often as low as once a month. In numbers, this amount of people equates to close to three million people who very rarely use cash in the United Kingdom.
Given that this will surely become more profound in the future as people look for other ways to spend or transfer money, it seems as though the younger generation are more than happy to move into a cashless society. However, it seems as though when you look at all age groups, cash remains King in many situations.
A lot of low income households need cash payment options
The survey suggests that 5% of the population in the United Kingdom, which equates to 2.7 million people were reliant on cash in the day to day. While the study found that this was true across a range of age groups, there was a worry that people with lower household incomes were more likely to be dependent on cash than people who had more money to spend.
This is something that will be seen as a concern because if there are moves in the future to make cash payment options less acceptable, these people are the ones who will be penalised. Life is already difficult enough for people struggling with lower income and if other barriers were to be put in the way of them, life could become extremely difficult.
The survey suggested that more than 50% of the consumers who were mainly dependent on cash had a household income of less than £15,000 for the year. This means that a lot of the people who are dependent on cash need to have these options available to them or they may find that they are unnecessarily punished.
Handing over cash is a physical reminder of what you spend
For many people, the physical act of handing over cash and seeing it move from yourself to a shop or retailer is an important part of tracking your money and staying on top of your finances. When you use a contactless payment option, you don’t really think about the payment that you have made and when you make a couple of similar transactions in the same day, you can lose track of the money you have available to you and what you have spent.
This is why it is essential that people who have a low level of income are able to stay in control of their finances and for many people, using cash is a brilliant way of remaining on top of their money. There is also the fact that there is often a need to have an expensive smartphone or other gadget to buy items in this manner and these can be costly as well. If you are watching every penny, you cannot really justify the purchase of these gadgets, so this would be another barrier that would see people with a low household income penalised if it became more difficult to make cash payments.
In the United Kingdom in 2016, cash payments accounts for 44% of the total number of payments made by consumers. This is still a high figure and anyone who needs assistance in dealing with short term financial matters will find that help is at hand. Guarantor loans are a smart and effective way to stay on top of bills while obtaining a reasonable APR. This is down to the presence of the guarantor.
It is easy to see why fewer people in the UK use cash on a regular basis, but there will always be people who are happier or more confident with the use of cash. There is a need to ensure cash payment options remain in place for people, no matter how many cashless payment options become available.
Andrew Reilly is a freelance writer with a focus on news stories and consumer interest articles. He has been writing professionally for 9 years but has been writing for as long as he can care to remember. When Andrew isn’t sat behind a laptop or researching a story, he will be found watching a gig or a game of football.