The British Retail Consortium (BRC) annual payments survey has found that cash usage has climbed for the first time in ten years.
According to Sky News, the survey highlighted a significant shift in consumer payment habits, with a particular emphasis on the resurgence of cash usage for the first time in a decade.
This change is attributed to people paying closer attention to their household budgets. In 2022, card payments remained dominant, accounting for 76% of all transactions. Among these, debit cards were particularly prominent, being used in approximately 80% of card transactions.
Retailers faced substantial expenses in card processing fees, amounting to £1.26bn in 2022. This figure underlines the cost implications of the prevailing payment methods for businesses. Interestingly, there was a noticeable rise in the popularity of alternative payment methods such as ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes. These methods saw their usage grow from 2% of transactions in 2021 to 5% in 2022, reflecting a growing consumer interest in flexible payment options.
Additionally, a trend towards smaller and more frequent payments by consumers was noted This change is evident in the increase in the number of transactions, which grew from 17.2 billion in 2021 (47.2 million per day) to 19.6 billion in 2022 (53.7 million per day).
Concurrently, the average transaction value decreased from £24.49 to £22.43, suggesting that consumers are more actively shopping around and managing their spending in smaller increments.
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