PINcept.com: It's Good to Be King

It's Good to Be King

Report States That Cash Is Still King, But For How Long?
Jun 4 2009

Editor's Note: Since HomeATM moves "cash" in "real time" as a PIN (online) Debit transaction, I suppose it really doesn't matter if Cash remains King, or if it's overthrown (overthrone?) by Debit. Either way works for us...because either way works for you! It's good to be King, but I'll settle for the title: KingPIN.

The payment industry's latest publication, The Way We Pay 2009: UK Cash & Cash Machines provides the latest data on how UK consumers are obtaining and using cash and how this is forecast to change.

The full Payments Council report issued this month (June 2009) includes data from Link and other industry sources.

2008 cash and cash machine data shows:

71% of all cash acquired by consumers came from cash machines.
2.9 billion cash machine withdrawals were made last year - equivalent
to 91 withdrawals per second
Cash payment volumes are forecast to fall by 27% over the next 10 years
If current trends persist, next year for the first time debit card spending will overtake cash spending by value

Whilst cash spending continues to remain relatively flat, the number of cash machine withdrawals continues to rise and is forecast to peak in 2011. Consumers are increasingly using cash machines for withdrawing cash, where previously they would have withdrawn money in bank branches or at post offices; five years ago only 54% of cash came from cash machines, last year 71% of cash was acquired that way. This shift has been driven by an increase in the availability and numbers of cash machines as well as the migration of payment for state benefits and pensions from cash and girocheque to automated methods.

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