Australians are clinging to cash as usage rises despite fears that physical tender could cease to exists in the years to come. <\/p>\n
New RBA survey data shows the key role cash still plays in society.<\/p>\n
According to RBA report author Kieran MacGibbon, more than a third of Australians surveyed said they would face hardship or major inconvenience if they could not use cash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who used cash more frequently for transactions were more likely to report that they would be adversely affected if cash was not readily accessible and accepted,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOver 70 per cent of high cash users indicated that they would face major difficulties if they could no longer withdraw cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, the survey data also showed cash usage was on the rise, as it lifted from 13 per cent of transactions in 2022 to 15 per cent in 2025. <\/p>\n
Payments by value in the economy remains virtually unchanged at 8 per cent, thanks to Australians largely using cash for small in-person transactions.<\/p>\n
This comes despite experts saying Australia would functionally be cashless by about 2030, as digital payments continue to take a larger share of the nation\u2019s transactions. <\/p>\n
This stabilisation of cash usage follows a dramatic fall during the Covid pandemic when cash usage slumped to its lowest levels on record as consumers switched to digital payments. <\/p>\n
Despite the pick up in cash usage, it still remains the least often used of all payment types.<\/p>\n
According to the RBA\u2019s survey of 1200 Australians, about one in two consumers still make a cash payment in a typical week. <\/p>\n
While Australians of all demographic groups regularly use cash, older Australians and low-income households have the highest cash usage.<\/p>\n
Mr MacGibbon says cash still plays an important role in the Australia economy, particularly as a viable back-up to card payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany Australians still carry cash for unexpected transactions or in case electronic payments are not available,\u201d the RBA report stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe survey results highlight the important role of cash in an inclusive and resilient payments system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cash users punished<\/p>\n
The RBA has come out in support of cash just weeks after announcing it would ban pesky surcharges on card transactions. <\/p>\n
At the end of March, the RBA released its long-awaited review of merchant card payment costs and surcharging.<\/p>\n
As part of three key changes, the RBA says it\u2019s removing surcharging on debit, prepaid and credit cards across eftpos, MasterCard and Visa networks.<\/p>\n
Instead, businesses will be required to include the entire price \u2013 including any costs to issue the credit \u2013 as part of the sticker price.<\/p>\n
Australians are slugged about $1.6bn in surcharge payments every year, while businesses pay $200m to card providers.<\/p>\n
Cash Welcome founder Jason Bryce told NewsWire at the time that the RBA went a step too far by removing surcharges on both debit and credit card spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m concerned cash users are going to end up paying for the frequent flyer points and the benefits that accrue to people using fancy credit cards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo who is losing? Ordinary bank account holders with a debit card, cash users, people budgeting and I can\u2019t see how small businesses are going to like this at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Bryce said the announcement did not get rid of surcharging. Instead, it simply hid the fees businesses paid to card providers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians are clinging to cash as usage rises despite fears that physical tender could cease to exists in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164,115817],"class_list":["post-618476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-newswire-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}