Already Leaning Towards Digital Money, Covid-19 Pushes More People Towards Contactless Payments
Consumers have been using less and less cash each year. We often get paid in non-cash transactions with automatic deposits into our accounts and most of our daily spending involves our cards or phone.
Then Covid-19 enters the picture, and over 6 months the digital money trend has been accelerated considerably. Coronavirus has raised health and safety concerns around using cash and coins, with consumers and merchants both more eager than ever to adopt digital payment methods.
Rapyd, a global fintech organization, conducted a survey online in August 2020 to determine how the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted US consumers’ preferences for cash and digital payments. Findings included:
- 54% of consumers surveyed are concerned about handling paper money/coins as a result of COVID
- 60% plan on using digital/touchless payments instead of cash/coins in the future because of COVID
- 32% want to see paper money/coins phased out in the future because of COVID
- 45% would like to see pennies phased out/eliminated
- 30.5% want to see all coins phased out
- 81% have heard about the US coin shortage