Britain will finally be cashless by 2043, at least that's what an online casino is betting after examining paper money's form.
Gala Casino used linear regression on cash usage data from 2004 to 2014, which saw a drop from 71% to 53%, and Payments UK predictions for 2024, to arrive at its guesstimate that 2043 will be the year in which the number of cash transactions reaches zero per cent.
Last year non-cash payment methods overtook cash transactions and Payments UK predicts card will overtake notes and coins by 2021. Mastercard research recently found that Brits think cash will die out by 2036 but data trends suggest this is likely to be optimistic.
Stephen Hart, CEO, CardSwitcher, says: "The move from cash to cashless will follow a similar progression to the demise of cheques. Cheque use has plummeted and there are regular calls for them to be scrapped entirely. This, however, has not happened because there are key groups who still use them."
A Gala Casino survey shows that 66% of Brits use cash on a daily basis. The same percentage say that they avoid businesses which don’t offer alternative options to cash but 68% would be scared to live in a society that was entirely cashless. Fraud (61%), reliance on technology (45%) and lack of privacy (31%) are cited as the biggest causes for concern.
However, the rise of contactless is expected to ween more people off of cash. According to Barclaycard, more than half of payments under £30 in London are tap and pay, and cash volumes are forecast to fall by 30% over the next ten years.