Research on UK usage of and attitudes towards cash amidst the Cost of Living Crisis.

The research explores the UK public’s usage and attitudes towards cash and reflects on how this has changed in recent years in the context of the cost-of-living pressures. The research considers, the current and expected future of cash, reasons for using cash over other payment methods and interest in using alterative cash facilities as well as exploring attitudes towards different policy initiatives such as CBDPs.

Key Findings:

1. Support for cash payment options is high – and increasing. There is overwhelming public support for the right to pay cash in different settings and increasingly widespread opposition to a cashless society. Attitudes toward the creation of a central bank digital pound are more mixed.
2. Interest in using alternative cash facilities appears widespread. Almost two-thirds (63%) of consumers say they would definitely or probably use a kiosk in a supermarket that enables them to deposit coins and notes into their bank accounts.
3. Almost all consumers use cash. As in 2022, 94% use cash at least occasionally. Older and less affluent consumers are most likely to use cash all or most of the time.
4. There has been particular reliance on cash in recent months. Around a quarter (27%) of consumers have taken cash from a coin jar/piggy bank to deposit in a bank branch, while slightly fewer (21%) have increased their reliance on cash to help manage their finances.
5. There is a wide range of reasons for using cash. The most widespread reason is convenience, selected by 40% of cash users. Around a quarter (24%) of cash users do so to help them budget, rising to over half (53%) of frequent users.
6. Most consumers expect to maintain or increase their use of cash. Only 36% of consumers expect to use cash less often for in-person transactions in 12 months, down from 45% in 2022. By contrast, 45% expect to use cash as often and 12% expect to use it more often.
7. There is strong support for keeping both coins and notes in circulation. 80% of consumers were opposed to getting rid of all coins & notes.

To read the survey results in full, click here.

Notes to editors
Coinstar® is the global leader in self-service coin counting with 24,000 kiosks in North America, United Kingdom, and Western Europe. More than 900 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 Global Counsel to do a National Survey on British attitudes to cash amidst the Cost of Living Crisis (June 2023). The results are based on 2,070 UK adults and quotas and weights applied to ensure the sample is representative by age, gender, region, and socio-economic status.