Out with the cash and in with the card

ONE IN five people in Ireland never carry any cash and of those that do, almost one-third carry €20 or less. 

This is according to a new survey by Royal London Ireland, one of the leading life insurance and pensions companies in Ireland.  

Furthermore, men (24%) are more likely than women (16%) to never carry cash.

Of those who do carry cash however, men tend to carry higher amounts on them than women.

The Royal London Ireland survey, which examined the use of cash by people in Ireland, found that the top five reasons people needed cash regularly was to pay for small daily grocery items such as milk and bread, to pay service providers who prefer cash, to buy lunch or take-away coffee or tea, to give tips  and to donate to charity.

Other highlights from the survey include that almost one in five people  carry more than €100 regularly.

People in Leinster appear to be the least likely to carry cash.

One in four people in Dublin and almost a third of people in the rest of Leinster say they never carry cash. 

By contrast, only one in ten of those living in Ulster and Connacht never carry cash.

50% of people aged 18-24 said they never carry cash, while just 10% of people aged 55 or older said the same.

Commenting on the survey findings, Barry McCutcheon, Proposition Lead at Royal London Ireland said; “We’ve seen an increase in cashless payments in Ireland in recent years, so the numbers of people who carry very little cash, or any at all, is unsurprising. Despite the increasingly digital nature of Irish banking and payment systems in recent years, we can see from the survey findings that cash still plays an important role in Ireland’s society and economy, with many people relying on it when going about their day-to-day routines. This balances with a European Central Bank survey in 2022 which showed that the majority (54%) of Irish consumers’ in-store transactions were in cash.”