Is Cold, Hard Cash Obsolete? It's Getting There

A survey finds mobile payment services are used by the vast majority—but many of us are still carrying bills and coins anyway.

I haven’t been to an ATM in probably five years. Even before the pandemic, I avoided filthy lucre(Opens in a new window), the operative word being "filthy." Online banking—especially using apps to occasionally deal with a check deposit and mobile payment services for everything from food orders to parking to paying the dog sitter on Rover(Opens in a new window)—has become my norm. It's so easy, I assumed the rest of the world was right there with me. A new report indicates I’m dead wrong.

The insights come from an April survey of 1,117 people in the US conducted by the risk-assessment automation site ThirdPartyTrust. Respondents were pretty evenly split on gender, with household incomes from $20,000 to over $100,001; the majority were full-time workers, along with a mix of part-time workers, the unemployed, and “other.”

Plenty of survey respondents are still hitting the automatic teller—78%. The majority (49%) go as rarely as once every other month. Only 11% said they visited often (one or two times per week).

(Image: ThirdPartyTrust)

But the bigger takeaway is that most of the respondents prefer to bank through a phone app (70%) or online (80%). And a full 69% realize they can deposit checks with a mobile app; no need to visit a bank in person.

(Image: ThirdPartyTrust)

Almost one in five said they never visit a bank branch.

Nineteen percent say the COVID-19 pandemic put them off cash for good (because money is, to be honest, gross). Obviously, even more people might want to go cashless, but it's not really an option. That’s because there are still many businesses that accept only cash payments. Fifty-eight percent of respondents say they’ve encountered such a business (compared with 44% who have run into businesses that shun cash entirely).

(Image: ThirdPartyTrust)

Only 27% said they’d prefer a cash-only establishment. Most look to see that a place will take multiple forms of payment before they even go in; 52% said they've left a business when they discovered it was cash-only.

Still, people are nervous without cash on hand; 76% had currency in their wallets while they were being surveyed, even though most don’t use it that often.

(Image: ThirdPartyTrust)

Using cash is certainly not most people's preference. Ninety percent of those surveyed have used a mobile payment service app. PayPayl, Venmo, and Zelle are the favorites; PCMag’s top choice, Google Pay, is the least used. Fifty-nine percent prefer using apps for convenience, financial tracking, speed, and security. And, of course, many say they like it because it means not carrying cash (31%) or a wallet (15%).

(Image: ThirdPartyTrust)

For more insights into how people are paying for things and why, check out the full report at ThirdPartyTrust.

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