For the first time ever, the use of debit and credit cards has taken over cash as the most popular way to pay as contactless technology takes the lead on what it used for day-to-day spending.
In total, 13.2 debit card payments were made in 2017, a rise of 14% in 2016 according to UK Finance.
This has overtaken the 13.1 million cash payments that were made as the use of notes and change has dropped by 15%.
Approximately 3.4 million people rarely use cash at all during the year.
An annual report looking into how consumers make payments revealed that the UK is a nation of spontaneous spenders. Only 15% of the 38.8 billion payments made in 2017 within the UK were for regular bills leaving the rest for consumer goods.
Purchases have increasingly been made using contactless technology, with cards, smartwatches and smartphones all being used for methods of payments. Contactless payments have doubled in a year with 5.6 billion contactless payments last year.
Contactless cards accounted for 15% of all payments in 2017, but UK Finance has predicted this proportion to rise to 36% in the next 10 years. The growth of online shopping and card acceptance among smaller traders would lead to even more growth in debit card use in general.
People aged between 24 and 34 were the most likely to use contactless payments and the same age group were also the most likely to not use cash at all.
Alternatively, 2.2 million people used cash as their main payment method when shopping last year.
Whilst cash payments are still important, wearable technology payments and contactless are inevitably going to grow more and more as people find it easier to use. However, with the development of technology, there are also risks for consumers such as failures in technology and hardware.
Has your business been affected by the surge of card and contactless payments? Get in touch with our Milton Keynes office by calling 01908 046 964 to find out how using card payment scan benefit your business.