UK Finance payments data comment: the impact of less cash
Lynda Clarke, general manager UK at Nayax: “UK Finance released its latest Payment Markets report this week, showing how the way people pay is continuing to change. The main findings are pretty telling in that cash now accounts 8% of payments, down from 45% a decade ago, while the proportion of UK adults registered for a mobile payment service has risen from 57% to 65% in just one year. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, it’s already at 89%.
Card payments are now standard across much of the UK economy. But for services that have traditionally depended on coins – including arcades, laundrettes and vending machines – the transition is not yet complete, even as customers become far less likely to carry cash.
Some 19 million people now use cash once a month or less. For them, carrying coins just isn’t part of their normal routine anymore. They expect to tap the card, phone or watch they already have with them, whether they’re buying a coffee, playing an arcade game or using a self-service machine. And these are often spontaneous purchases, so if someone can’t use their usual payment method to buy a £2 or £3 drink or play a game, they’re unlikely to go searching for a cash machine or return later with coins. They’ll simply walk away. One missed purchase might appear insignificant, but repeated across hundreds of customers and payment points, those lost sales quickly add up.
Given this massive shift over the past few years, the question for operators is no longer really whether to accept digital payments, but whether cash still needs to sit alongside them. The answer will vary by location and customer base. Cash remains important where people genuinely rely on it, but it should be a commercial decision based on how customers actually pay – not something an operator continues to support simply because the machine has always taken coins.”