Explore consumer attitudes to cash and how the cost of living has impacted behaviours with this Cash:back survey commissioned by Coinstar.

New research from Coinstar’s recently released Cash:back survey, explores the UK public’s usage of and attitudes towards cash. It considers how this has changed since September 2021 when Coinstar completed a similar survey and explores how the increasing cost-of-living is impacting consumer relationships with cash payments.

Key Findings:

1. Cash continues to be widely used by the UK public – and a quarter are frequent users. Almost all of the public (95%) use cash at least occasionally, while the proportion using it all or most of the time has increased from 21% in September 2021 to 25% in June 2022.
2. Convenience is the most widespread reason for using cash, though a quarter of cash users use it to budget. 39% of cash users do so for convenience, while a quarter (25%) use it to help them budget – rising to 35% of those on household incomes of £14,000 or under.
3. There has been increased reliance on cash in recent months as the cost of living has risen. A third (34%) of the public believe that cash has become more important to them compared to other forms of payment as the cost of living has increased, while 40% have in recent months spent coins previously saved around the house (e.g. in piggy bank, coin jar or drawer).
4. Most expect to use cash more or about the same in the next 12 months, while some expect to use it less. Similarly, to September 2021, 52% expect to use cash more or about the same amount in the next 12 months, with 45% expecting to use it less.
5. Support for cash payment options is high and has increased in the past year. There is widespread support for the right to pay cash in shops (86% supporting, up from 80% in September), as well as strong opposition to getting rid of all notes and coins (77% opposing, up from 73% in September) and getting rid of coins specifically (72% opposing, similar to 70% in September).

To read the survey results in full, click here.

Notes to editors
Coinstar® is the global leader in self-service coin counting with 23,000 kiosks in North America, United Kingdom, Western Europe, and Japan. More than 800 billion coins have been processed since Coinstar’s inception in the early 1990s. Coinstar is also the leader in self-service coin counting services in the UK, with around 2,000 kiosks across 4 major supermarket partners. Coinstar is upgrading its kiosk portfolio to accept notes, secure card readers and barcode scanners to serve a growing need for essential cash services across the country.

Coinstar recently commissioned Savanta ComRes to do a National Survey on British attitudes to cash (June 2022). The results are based on 2,311 nationally representative UK adults and splits respondents by age, geography, and socio-economic status. Additionally, Coinstar commissioned Savanta ComRes to complete a similar survey in September 2021 the results of which have been used comparatively alongside the June 2022 survey. The 2021 survey can be reviewed here https://coinstarukdev.wpengine.com/press-releases/new-research-shows-8-in-10-consumers-want-a-right-to-pay-in-cash.