Cash lingers longer in purses and wallets
IF YOU have had the same $20 note sitting in your purse or wallet for weeks, you’re not alone.
The dwindling relevance of cash has become obvious by how little of it people carry on them and how infrequently they withdraw money, research by Beyond Bank Australia shows.
More than half of us now carry less than $50 and more than a quarter carry less than $20, while half visit an ATM only once a month or less frequently, it found.
Beyond Bank’s general manager customer experience, Nick May, said Australians’ dependence on cash was quickly disappearing across all age groups, and 72 per cent used contactless card payments instead of cash.
“It wouldn’t have been that long ago, maybe three to five years, when we all visited the ATM regularly, probably weekly, took out a few hundred dollars and relied on that to get by,” he said.
“There is now almost no instance where you can’t complete a purchase with a card or a phone app – even the humble primary school lunch order often is done by some form of electronic payment.
“It wasn’t that long ago that some retailers accepted cash only for purchases. We now see the opposite, where major venues are cashless and patrons can only transact by card.’’
Karina Stain, 34, said she “hardly ever’’ needed cash because most businesses did not have a lower limit on card transactions.
“I use my card or phone to pay for almost everything,” she said. “I guess I might buy a coffee once a month or so, but that would be it.’’
Wealth for Life Financial Planning principal Rex Whitford said while cash would never completely disappear, it was becoming less relevant and this created dangers around controlling spending because people never physically handed over money.
“You swipe a card. Beep. Fantastic. No pain felt,’’ he said. “We are inventing new ways to get rid of our money but not making new ways to make money. It’s important to have a mechanism in place to direct money to their own savings and investments before they spend everything.”