Overview of Cash in the UK

There have been a series of press reports about cash over the last few weeks. Put them together and a story emerges of what a society going cashless looks like.

The number of people who say they don’t carry cash has trebled since 2019. LINK data shows that UK consumers are still withdrawing £209 million a day from cash machines. However, this is £100 million (or 33%) less than 2019.

As more customers are banking and paying for things digitally, especially since the pandemic, for some people the idea of a cashless society is becoming more real. In 2019, 41% of people thought that they would see a cashless society in their lifetime. That figure is now 48%.

Despite wider digital adoption, LINK research shows a growing divide among society to whether a cashless society would be problematic. 48% say it would be problematic (up 1% from 2019). 39% said it would not (up 6% from 2019).