Cash in the UK 2020 – Survey Results

Enryo, a financial services consultancy, conducted four public surveys of over 2,000 people in the UK from April 2020 to January 2021 and an additional survey in March 2021. It has just issued its report and presented a webinar of its results.

Enryo’s work suggests that cash transactions fell from 7.2 billion in 2019 to 3.4 billion in 2020, a 53% drop. Part of this reduction is, of course, due to fewer transactions. The Bank of England’s Clearing House Automated Payment System data from 14 January 2021 showed that aggregate debit and credit card purchases were down 35% on February 2020. Enryo’s survey data was in line with this, showing a 34% drop in day-to-day transactions but a 41% increase in online purchases.

One result of this is that cash transactions have become more concentrated in people not ready for digital payments – older people, those earning under £25,000 per year and those financially and digitally excluded. The surveys suggest that 11.6 million people (23% of adults) use cash everyday or at least once a week, 15 million people (27%) use cash regularly, once a week or once a fortnight, and 23 million people (50%) rarely use cash (once a month or less).

People tend to use a wide range of payment options, which is reflected in frequent or regular card use by 75% of people, cash use by 39%, credit card use by 35% and mobile wallet use by 29%.

While 13% of people say they never use cash, 6% never use cards of any sort, 39% never use credit cards and 64% never use mobile wallets.

‘Where’ and ‘what drives’ cash usage?

The surveys explore where people are using cash and what is driving change. The ‘where’ explains why cash usage has dropped so much since many of those places are not available in lockdown.