Cash is still the most popular way to pay

There's NO peak cash

Monday 24th July 2023:

The value of total banknotes (cash) on issue has not hit “peak cash” and can be expected to continue to rise into the future.
 
Pandemic hoarding led to a big increase in 2020 and 2021 in the total value of notes on issue and that is now being deposited back into the banking system.
 
There was over $101.285 billion worth of Australian banknotes circulating in the economy on 30 June 2023, according to the RBA. That's up substantially from $90.102 billion on 30 June 2020, just three years ago.

The level of cash on issue has only fallen back in recent months to be closer to the long term trend line, which is still rising.
 
The number of ATM cash withdrawals continue as normal around the 29 – 30 million per month level and were up in May by 11,000 over April 2023, as reported by the RBA.
 
“There is no decline in cash usage or the number of cash withdrawals in Australia and New Zealand,” said Tim Wildash, cash industry veteran and Executive Chairman of Next Payments.

“We are not seeing a decline in cash usage through our ATM network and the overall national numbers are strong.”
 
“Cash use is resilient because cash is reliable, private, surcharge-free and great for budgeting.
 
“Retailers are not, by and large, going cashless and many are preferring cash payments because of the merchant service costs they are facing. Woolies Metro and other retailers who have experimented with going cashless have faced negative customer feedback and returned to accepting cash,” said Mr Wildash.
 
“Consumers, including young people are working out that it’s too easy to tap your money away and too hard to budget without cold, hard cash. Put a fifty in your pocket and that’s my budget for the outing.”
 
#cashstuffing (budgeting) and #100envelopechallenge (save $5K in 3 months) have hundreds of millions of views on TikTok.
 
“Cashless transactions are convenient but everyone needs cash at some time.

"There’s no information and there’s no transaction fees exchanged with cash and there’s plenty of legitimate reasons for us to need that to be available.”

Last week the RBA reported a small increase in the number of ATM cash withdrawals made in Australia in May - up 11,000 to 29,408,100 total cash withdrawals.

The number of cash withdrawals has been around 29 to 30 million per month since the end of lockdowns in NSW and Victoria. 

Jason Bryce [email protected] 0428 777 727

Tim Wildash 0418 336 599 [email protected]