Cash is (still) King.
According to studies carried out by ECB, cash is still the most common form of payment in Europe. Cash accounts for more than three quarters of in store transactions in the euro area last year.
Despite the huge uprising and hype surrounding contactless payment cards and mobile wallets, 79% of transactions at the checkout where carried out and completed using cash last year. This amounts to around 54% of the total value of payments, in contrast… cards were used for only 19% of in store transactions and made up for 39% of the total value of payments.
The data shows a geological divide: the southern euro area countries such as in Germany and Austria, show that more than 80% of POS payments were made in cash but northern areas such as the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland show that cash usage to be around the 50% mark.
Men are shown to use cash a lot more often than women and the older generations more than the young, however, there is no difference in education.
The high levels of hard cash usage come even though studies show people SAY they would rather pay by card other than cash. ECB suggests that this is due to nearly 2 thirds of all payments are under 15 euros and contactless payments are still rare in many countries even in Europe.
This leaves open the possibility that cash could fall out of favour in the up and coming years as contactless cards, apple wallet and Android pay pickup, something that has already been seen in areas such as the UK and Australia.
This leads us to the final point which shows that cash is still used as a store of value, this means that almost a quarter of people in the euro zone keep money saved in the house as a precautionary reserve. This is the complete opposite to the east and middle east as most of the people’s homes keep some wealth in the form of items such as gold and jewellery.
So, this has been a small incite into the current trends of payment in Europe, it will soon differ in the future as specialists are certain that contactless payment will take off around the continent. If you have enjoyed this post from us then please do not hesitate and do yourself the favour of checking out our very own blog page, this can be found here.