According to a survey, cash is the trump card for a good third of people in Germany, despite all the technical payment options. 36 percent of the more than 2000 adults surveyed by the polling company YouGov said they generally preferred cash payments.
At the same time, almost a quarter (23 percent) of those surveyed said that they only use notes and coins when cashless payments are not possible. Almost half of those surveyed (45 percent) said they had at least once in 2021 that they wanted to pay by card, for example, but only cash was accepted.
Sometimes cashless payments are not possible
However, only a minority of 27 percent pays via smartphone or smartwatch. Friedhelm Beuse from the cooperative association classified the results of the survey carried out on behalf of the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken in the association.
The association, based in Neu-Isenburg, represents institutes in all federal states with the exception of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Beuse is a member of the board of directors of Volksbank Münsterland Nord and deputy head of the market and products working committee at the cooperative association.
Cash payments are given “more control”
As a reason for paying in cash, 29 percent of respondents cite that they would then have more control over their spending. According to Beuse, this motive will take a back seat as the use of mobile banking increases.
According to the survey, checking accounts via the banking app on the smartphone is currently the most widely used mobile banking application: 24 percent say that they usually use the app for this. 42 percent prefer to access their account online banking on a laptop or PC, 15 percent use both options equally.
Only 13 percent stated that they did not do their account query digitally at all. Similar relationships emerged in the survey when asked how bank customers handle transfers and standing orders.
The data are based on an online survey by YouGov Deutschland GmbH, in which 2069 adults took part in the period from December 15 to 17 this year. According to the information, the results were weighted and are therefore representative of the German population aged 18 and over. One of the questions asked was: “Do you pay at least occasionally with mobile devices (e.g. smartphone / smartwatch)?” and “How often did it happen to you in 2021 that you want to pay cashless (e.g. with a card), but you could only pay in cash?”
(tiw)