2022: The Year That Many Brits Learnt to Love Cash Again | Small slivers of hope in the Global War on Cash.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12/2023-the-year-that-brits-learnt-to-love-cash-again.html

However it may seem, the title of this article does not include a typo. It mentions the year 2022, not 2023, for the simple reason that the publication of data on payment habits in the UK has roughly a one-year lag. As such, it wasn’t until late 2023 that it became apparent that the use of cash had rebounded in 2022, for the first time in ten years. This is potentially an important trend reversal. ...

Another data point, along with the war on ULEZ cameras, that show Brits are feeling the sand in their pants. (And, apparently, the Swiss and the Spanish, who are also mentioned as seeing a jump in cash transactions).

Cash useage had gone from around 60% of payments in the the 2010s to a low of 15% in 2021 at the height of the covid-induced "contactless payment" thrill, but has now risen by 7% to 22%. Another measure pegs it at 19%.

A consortium of large retailers, big banks, and payment companies issued a report calling this "still fairly minimal", but these all have a bias towards electronic payments anyway so it may be a bit of whistling in the dark.

Reasons for the jump are proposed, including a return to "cash envelope budgeting" due to rising inflation, but they also allude indirectly that some fraction of this may be deliberate rebellion:

... This raises a key point: cash use is reboundind despite the concerted efforts by the government, banks and retailers to limit its use, which I believe makes this trend reversal all the more impressive. ...

The EU stepped in and forbade Slovakia and Austria from enacting laws to protect the use of cash, saying that they would require EU permission to do so!!!

... It is a reminder that while small but key victories have been achieved in defence of cash this year, the global war against physical money continues unabated.

I've deliberately upped my use of cash and cheques significantly purely as a rebellious gesture and many on GAW seem to have done so as well.

Spreading the word about the joys of cash can be done indirectly by simply praising how "quick and easy" cash is whenever someone in line ahead of you in the grocery store is having tap or PIN problems (which is remarkably often, actually).