Cash remains king – 67% of Americans still use traditional in-store payment (2024)

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Cash remains king – 67% of Americans still use traditional in-store payment? ›

Cash is the most commonly used form of payment, with 67% of respondents favoring it, demonstrating its enduring appeal for physical transactions. Debit cards (42% using chip and 35% swipe) and credit cards (35% using chip and 26% swipe) also remain popular.

Cash User Statistics

A total of 19.2% of American consumers will use cash for at least half of their purchases. Cash-only consumers represent 18.2% of those who will use cash for at least half of all purchases. The share of American consumers using only cash declined 30.0% from 2022 to 2024.

Greenwood Village, COLO – August 15, 2023 — “Cash is king,” according to nearly 1 in 5 of Americans (17%) who prefer the minimal risk and convenience of cash — and rising interest rates may prove some savers right, according to new research from Empower, a leader in planning, investing and advice.

Still a huge reliance on cash

Despite these massive changes, 71% of people still have some level of everyday reliance on cash and have used cash in the past two weeks. LINK data shows that UK consumers are still withdrawing £209 million a day from cash machines, however, this is £100m (33%) less than 2019.

In 2019, 26% of payments were in cash in the US, but that fell to 19%, 20% and 18% respectively in the following three years. The proportion of payments made by credit card rose from 18% in 2016 to 31% in 2022. Payments made by debit card rose to 29% of the total in the same year, from 27% in 2016.

Progress of cashless initiatives in key countries

The US is moving toward cashless payments, with a substantial increase in the use of mobile wallet apps and contactless cards. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that payments made using cash accounted for just 18% of all US payments in 2022.

Cash remains king – 67% of Americans still use traditional in-store payment.

If it's been a long time since you pulled out actual dollars and coins to pay for something — here's a conversation for you. It might seem like cash is slowly becoming obsolete. But, Brett Scott says it's a false narrative that we're all pining for a cashless society.

Is the cashless society really coming? Despite the rapid development of convenient, seamless digital payment methods, the 100 per cent cashless society remains a distant prospect. Cash is a trusted, reliable and essentially secure way to spend, and still adds up when it comes to straightforward everyday budgeting.

Which country is the most cashless? ›

And, if you're interested in going cashless, we can help you compare quotes from EPOS system providers. Just fill in our quick form. Norways is the most cashless country, with only around 2% of payments being made by cash, and 100% of the population having a bank account.

70% of people said they use card payments most often

22% of people said they use cash most often and only 14% of people said they prefer cash payments as they're more in control of what they spend. Only 7% said they use digital wallets (Apple/ Google Pay etc.)

Dividing this number by the value of M2, we see that actual cash comprises a bit more than 10.2 percent of the total money. This means that almost 89.8 percent of the money in the United States is not in the form of cash.

Cash use has been declining for years, but cash isn't close to going away. In 2022, there were a staggering 70 billion cash transactions, making it the third-most-common payment method.

For many Americans, cash is not king. More than three-quarters of respondents to a recent U.S. Bank survey said they never carry more than $50 in currency with them. Nearly one-quarter said they keep $10 or less.

American households hold just under $18 trillion in liquid assets, which includes cash deposits, representing an astounding increase from the $10 trillion level in 2013. Consumers added $5 trillion in liquid assets in 2020 alone.