- Title: Cashless society getting closer, survey finds
- Date: 26th April 2017
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (APRIL 26, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ING SENIOR ECONOMIST, IAN BRIGHT, SAYING: "In my own thoughts, we'll never go completely cashless but more and more people will end up in a situation where they can quite comfortably get by for two days, three days, four days, and even a week, without ever using cash. And certainly, that's what we found. We asked people, if you were in a situation where you couldn't access cash, ATMs just weren't available or something, how long do you think you'd get by? Around about one in three said, we'd get by around about 72 hours. Around about 50 percent said we can get by for a week. Then we said what about a month, only around about 20 percent odds said we'd get there. But already people are organising their lives in a way that they don't necessarily have to have cash on them. The days of getting to the week and saying, I haven't got enough cash on me so I can't go out, and have to rush around and find an ATM are gone. You can still go and meet your mate, have a drink and a dinner and so on and you don't have to rush around for cash. This is the sort of convenience which is worthwhile. So, I would expect in my lifetime, cash will continue to exist, but more and more I'll expect that my children, for example, will live lives where they might only visit the ATM machine once a month or so."
- Embargoed: 10th May 2017 16:48
- Keywords: consumer payment contactless ATM cashless cash survey ING
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / UNKNOWN LOCATIONS, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / UNKNOWN LOCATIONS, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA0056E1CIA5
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: More than a third of Europeans and Americans would be happy to go without cash and rely on electronic forms of payment if they could, and at least 20 percent already pretty much do so, a study showed on Wednesday (April 26).
The study, which was conducted in 13 European countries, the United States and Australia, also found that in many places where cash is most used, people are among the keenest to ditch it.
Overall, 34 percent of respondents in Europe and 38 percent in the United States said they would be willing to go cash-free, according to the survey conducted by Ipsos for the ING bank website eZonomics.
Twenty-one percent and 34 percent in Europe and the United States, respectively, said they already rarely use cash.
The trend was also clear. More than half of the European respondents said they had used less cash in the past 12 months than previously and 78 percent said they expected to use it even less over the coming 12 months.
Payment systems such as contactless cards and mobile-phone digital wallets have become so prevalent the issue has become political in some countries.
Cash-loving Germans, for example, have been concerned that a move by the European Central Bank to phase out the 500 euro note by the end of next year is the start of a slippery slope.
Germany is one of the countries that uses cash the most. The ING survey showed only 10 percent of Germans saying they rarely use cash, compared, for example, with 33 percent and 35 percent, respectively, in neighbours Poland and France.
The survey also showed that, in general, countries where cash is much in use were most likely to want to go cashless.
Only 19 percent of Italians said they rarely used cash but 41 percent said they would be willing to go cash. There was a similar trend in Turkey, Romania, the Czech Republic, Spain and even Germany. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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