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Payments Council reports shows move towards cashless society
16 Apr 2010

New research released today has shown a marked shift in the way that Brits pay for services and goods, seemingly indicating moves towards a cashless society.

In the last decade, the vast majority of payments were carried out using cash, with 73 per cent of all transactions made using notes and coins.

That figure has fallen significantly now. Less than 60 per cent of transactions are made with cash and of those almost four fifths are for less than £10.

Advancement in contactless smart card technology over the previous ten years, and other factors, could see much of these low value cash transactions made using cards such as the sQuidcard instead.

Mike Bowman, head of policy and markets at the Payments Council, said: "Although cash won't disappear in our lifetime, the continuing payments revolution will make it an even smaller part of out spending."

sQuid already offers customers the chance to use contactless smart card technology to pay for a variety of functions. In Bolton, customers can pay for transit on the municipality's buses, while Transport for London has recently bought the rights to the Oyster brand and is said to be looking into expanding the card's functionality to include low value retail payment.

This is a service already offered by sQuid at participating retail outlets across the UK.