Have simple swipes and taps taken over?

It’s so easy to use your mobile phone or contactless cards to pay for things now. And with the pandemic, they quickly became a way of life.

From everyday purchases to bigger buys. From online purchases to instore purchases. Cashless payments cover the lot.

What we were eager to know is how likely a totally cashless society is. We decided to ask the UK about their preferences.

We conducted a survey of nearly 3000 UK adults to reveal all. Here’s what we found.

An overview of the findings.

We covered all ground. Surveying males and females aged anywhere from 20 to 80 years old.

One statistic that stands out is that a whopping 70% of people said they prefer using cashless methods over physical money.

We’re not surprised, did you know even buses now take contactless payments? No need to count your coppers out anymore.

68% of people also said that using contactless payments lets them keep track of what they’re spending. We don’t know about you, but we may have to disagree here. There’s something about Apple Pay that has us feeling like it’s not real money…

Mobile phones make it easier than ever to store cards and 80% of our respondents reflect this by having at least one card stored on their phones.

One thing that I think is universal, is that phrase of ‘I’ve got no cash on me.’ It can cause a few problems, be it for taxis, takeaways, vending machines and so on.

46% of those surveyed said they’d happily leave the house without cash, but the remaining respondents still prefer to carry some. So, can we ever be truly cashless?

Less than 1% of the people in the UK are completely cashless currently, so there’s still a place for cash it seems.

Generational differences.

It should come as no surprise that younger people prefer cashless payments: 82% of 20-30 year olds compared to 68% of 60-70 year olds.

We do have to say that 68% was a surprising statistic, which we believe would’ve been much lower pre-pandemic. It also seems that the preference for technology is on the up.

However, only 6% of 60-70 year olds use their mobile to pay for things, compared to 23% of those aged 20-30.

Device differences.

It seems that the Apple and Samsung rivalry continues in the debate of a cashless society. Our findings show iPhone users (51%) are likely to leave the house without cash, opting for Apple Pay instead.

The results for Samsung users however was much lower at 33%. So, this raises a new debate entirely. Are Apple more equipped to deal with a cashless society? We’ll let you decide.

Our conclusion.

Despite having some surprising stats from our survey, one thing that does remain clear is that we’re not ready to be completely cashless just yet.

The practicality that comes with contactless payments, including mobile phone payments, is universally appreciated among all age groups.

However, the thought of being without money entirely is still quite daunting it seems.

Looking for a new mobile to test out all your contactless payments on? We’ve got you covered. We’ve got a number of epic deals on the biggest and best brands out there. We’ll even throw in free delivery.