cash at the end? Germans lose interest in searching through their wallets

Cash is actually becoming less and less popular in Germany, as new figures show. Coins and bills are trending downwards, with other payment methods such as mobile payment being used more frequently.

Survey: Germans pay less in cash

Whether at the weekly market, at the kebab shop or in the pub: paying in cash is part of everyday life for many Germans. Now, at the latest, dealers who only accept coins and banknotes should reorient themselves. The Germans are slowly losing their desire for cashas a new survey as part of the Statista Global Consumer Survey shows.

The survey asked people how often they used different payment methods in the last 12 months. If the share of cash was still 84 percent in 2020, it is now fallen to 72 percent. The decline in cash payments is reflected in an increase in other payment methods.

13 percent of those surveyed have now used their smartphone to pay in restaurants or retail stores in the past twelve months. Compared to 2020 data, it has almost doubled. PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay are particularly popular among mobile payment providers.

Although there is less cash payment, there has also been a decline in the use of debit and credit cards to observe. Consumers used debit cards slightly less frequently than before, especially in 2022. The slight decline in credit cards already took place in 2021 (source: extra).

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Corona pandemic drives payment modernization

Together with the corona pandemic, contactless payment has become more popular in Germany. The trend is likely to continuesince a return to coins and banknotes is considered unlikely even after the pandemic is over – at least to the same extent as before.