Cash Payments vs Digital Payments, which one is more dominant in your area?

[Swordsoffreedom]

In my area, cash payments are more dominant (guess the country) but in general, cash payments are declining and digital payments are becoming more popular. I want to highlight that card payments became very common since Covid pandemic. By the way, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, these countries are very digitalized compared to other EU countries.

As far as I know, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Pakistan are countries that still prefer cash over digital payments, and cash transactions still account for more than 90%. Are you from one of these countries? And the country that uses the least cash today is not in Europe, but in the Asian country of South Korea. In Korea, only 10% of transactions use cash, the remaining 90% use digital payments.

Stablecoins are not necessary for digital payments. I prefer digital payments the way they are designed now instead of stablecoins but I think, CBDCs are inevitable. Sadly, soon the time will come when we won't be able to pay with cash and all of our payments will be tracked and recorded. If they don't like you, they'll block your account and you'll be in a huge trouble.

Digital payments are inevitable, and we will be more closely monitored and controlled. But I guess stablecoins could also become mainstream, and not just CBDCs.

Many countries like China and Europe are developing their own CBDCs, but there are also countries that are not very interested in the idea. Instead, they focus on controlling stablecoins like the US.

[El_Tammy]

This issue of digital payment taking over cash payment is just a sign of development I think. I'm a Nigerian and about 6 years ago, my grandpa told me that there was a country he visited where he didn't see any transaction that was made or carried out through cash payment but rather digital payment. He said and I quote "I hope Nigeria will also be like that someday when we won't have to be carrying cash around." Now fast forward to this day, we hardly carry cash when going out because society has been digitalized and it is a good one showing a sign of development and progress meaning we are moving forward. This act of cash being rarely used as some posts have said, started from an era when our leaders (political) passed a bill the notes (money) we were using should be modified and the old notes banned. Cash became scarce because those who got the new notes were so careful with how they spent it due to how stressful it was to get it.

During this period, Nigerians faced hell because life became tough, people started selling money, sellers increased the price of goods and automatically the old notes became useless. But trust us, the African gene in us helped us adapt and we started focusing on using digital modes of payment and transactions. In this case, even market women started having bank accounts just to have sales and see how further the act brought us. The same policy that broke us helped us to achieve something greater and over the years, we've been doing well with this new development. So in my area, it is all about digital payment to the point we rarely even have 50 bucks as cash because the make transactions online for even the smallest goods we buy.

[fuguebtc]

What I observed in my own locality is that people only pay in cash if they are just paying a small amount, but mostly when its already more than a thousand bucks, people resort into digital payment which is more convenient for them. With their cards and digital wallets, they don't have to bring big amount of cash as there are also cases of theft rising. And that is way safer than carrying cash along with them wherein they can't be sure if they can always keep it safe on their pocket or it'll may lost and vanish like thin air.

This is what I and my loved ones are doing. We still tend to use cash for most of our everyday payments. We only really use digital payments when purchasing big ticket items because it's convenient and avoids unwanted risks like theft as you mentioned.

Honestly, I still prefer using cash on a daily basis because I feel it gives me better control over my spending. Not sure if anyone is like me, but using digital payments is really convenient but makes it difficult for me to control my spending.

[coupable]

In my country, cash payment is still the number one method used by everybody including transactions between companies in different industries sectors. Even by the emergence of online shopping, merchants still have to offer cash payments for all his clients who has already met them in an online store.

Not only in my country, almost all the neighbor countries still depends on cash. When this would change? I think it should first start with political decision to change the economic model structure. Governments still collect taxes and distribute salaries in cash.

[leonair]

People all over the world are now gradually getting used to digital payments along with using cash and people are taking the issue of digital payments very seriously. The reason for this is that carrying cash is a lot of trouble, but in the case of digital payments, a person can make payments very easily through his smartphone, where people feel much more comfortable. Gradually, when people all over the world get used to digital payments, the whole world will become cashless. And many countries are now launching their own digital currencies so that people in the country can enjoy digital payments easily. A lot of digital payments have started in my area and people are using it with great pleasure. And I think in my area, people will completely move towards digital payments for any kind of transaction within the next five years.

[DanDizzy2]

Recently, I've been thinking about my area. I don't know if the same thing is happening in other parts of the country. But my focus is on my own area.
Cash payments here are becoming increasingly rare. Now, without realizing it, I personally pay more often using digital methods, whether by simply scanning a QR code (QRIS) or other digital methods. And I see this has almost become the majority of payments here lately.

A few years ago, cash payments were much more common. People still carried cash in their wallets or pockets rather than keeping money in their digital wallets. Now, things are starting to reverse. With what's happening now, it seems like the future of digital currency will become commonplace. Even stablecoins will likely begin to be accepted. CBDCs won't take long to adapt if people are already accustomed to digital payment systems.

I also read that in America, on July 18, 2025, a law regarding stablecoins was passed. The law is called GENIUS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act of 2025). And reportedly, even the UK is drafting this.

Does this mean more countries will follow? El Salvador, Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia have reportedly also adopted stablecoins. I don't know the details. However, the era of digital payments seems to be upon us. And I'm curious to see whether cash payments will still exist in the future.

What do you think? And have digital payments also started to dominate in your area?

Reference about GENIUS: www.gtlaw.com

This question is worth considering because looking around the world today you will see that the world has gone digital as the the question implies, in my area today you will hardly see young people with cash not even young people almost every body no longer do cash apart from market women that even up till now don't welcome digital stuff though not majority of them. This is it I'm my area it's more of digital than cash

[bitgolden]

Cash? I have not seen any cash payment in years. I even worked in a shop, where people bought stuff everyday all the time, and I can tell you that out of 100 payments daily, only like 5 of them were pure cash, everyone paid with credit card. Do we consider credit cards as digital or not?

Because let's be honest, it's a digital way of paying, it goes from your bank account to my bank account without ever paying the cash itself. Is it physical because we have a card involved and card is a physical thing. But that's not cash, but it is not purely digital neither. I have seen more and more people use their mobile phones to pay with QR these days, that number is increasing. So you have to realize, things aren't always the same when you look into details.

[Makus]

The world has gone digital and a lot of people run businesses now that deal on large amounts for them to do their daily transactions and you can't expect them to carry cash around. In most part of the world today digital payments seems to be more dominant in most areas. Even if cash payments is still preferable by some people it is still not compared to the rate at which people make use of digital payments now. But personally I prefer to use cash to run my daily expenditures, sometimes network and bank issues can disrupt a lot of things

[Cheema02]

It's not just in your country. Here too, we prefer to deal more with digital payment than carrying cash around. It's just on a growing scale. There are places where you can even go to make a purchase, and they will tell you they don't accept cash payment. The growing demand for such could be for security reasons and how easy it has become to make payment without delay of counting to confirm it money is complete or if the currency is counterfeit.

Yes, you're right, trends always shifted with passage of time the  main and only reason behind it's technology because with advancement in technology we get more advanced in future. Our ancestors grew up in world where every thing was manual so reasonably they trust cash more than other assets because they familiar with that and its easy for use as they thaught. But our generation grew in society where the usage of mobile, banking apps and online payments is common and they normaly use it. Its also true that sometimes many malfunctions or error done by technology is seemed which may cause the lose of trust of village people who are less advanced and there believe on physical cash is increased because they have fear of losing the cash.But this trust gape will slowly close and digital systems will be common in future in every corner of world                                                                                       

[Fara Chan]

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This question is worth considering because looking around the world today you will see that the world has gone digital as the the question implies, in my area today you will hardly see young people with cash not even young people almost every body no longer do cash apart from market women that even up till now don't welcome digital stuff though not majority of them. This is it I'm my area it's more of digital than cash

This is not surprising, as in my area, many shops and people already accept digital money rather than physical money. Therefore, physical money will slowly be replaced by digital money if everyone understands how to use it and store it properly. Because for some older people who are still unfamiliar with this, they certainly won't use digital money and will continue to rely on paper money for everything. However, when the number of people using physical money decreases, the dominance of digital money will continue to grow rapidly in every region.

[Jewan420]

Digital money exchange is increasing, some are using digital money regularly for shopping or some are using digital money for exchanging money over long distances. But in my area, instead of buying with digital money, it is used more for exchange. The main reason for being discouraged from purchasing products is because of the high transaction fees. Most of the time, it is seen that while purchasing products, we have to pay a transaction fee equal to the product when purchasing low-value products or the time for converting the profit of the merchants into cash ends and the profit of the merchants decreases. This is mainly because of this, the purchase of products with digital money is less in my area. But in terms of long-distance transactions, digital money is more popular.

[Synchronice]

As far as I know, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Pakistan are countries that still prefer cash over digital payments, and cash transactions still account for more than 90%. Are you from one of these countries? And the country that uses the least cash today is not in Europe, but in the Asian country of South Korea. In Korea, only 10% of transactions use cash, the remaining 90% use digital payments.

You might be surprised to hear this but the country in question is Germany. When it comes to digitalization, this country mostly sucks but otherwise it's a good country to live. But it comes with its pros and cons. The more places accept cash and less digital they are, the higher the privacy is for people, so it's not really that bad but ideally I still prefer the digitalization that Nordic countries have.

Digital payments are inevitable, and we will be more closely monitored and controlled. But I guess stablecoins could also become mainstream, and not just CBDCs.

Many countries like China and Europe are developing their own CBDCs, but there are also countries that are not very interested in the idea. Instead, they focus on controlling stablecoins like the US.

I don't understand, why will there be a market and need for stablecoins if we have CBDCs?

[HelliumZ]

Digital payments are now being widely used in various countries around the world instead of cash payments. Especially in my country, cash delivery is no longer provided for everything from pharmacies to daily necessities and household items, but payments are made by scanning QR codes. Previously, payments were made using QR codes in large super malls, but now every store uses digital payments. In the past, in my country, people used to carry pockets full of money and always pay cash at the market and return home, but now that problem is gone. Instead, if you have only a mobile device in your hand, you can return home after shopping for millions of taka. There is no fear of robbery or theft.

[junder]

This is what I and my loved ones are doing. We still tend to use cash for most of our everyday payments. We only really use digital payments when purchasing big ticket items because it's convenient and avoids unwanted risks like theft as you mentioned.

Honestly, I still prefer using cash on a daily basis because I feel it gives me better control over my spending. Not sure if anyone is like me, but using digital payments is really convenient but makes it difficult for me to control my spending.

But in digital transactions, you also need to be vigilant, don't buy goods at a high price without thoroughly researching the transaction, because currently there are many frauds carried out in various ways. I myself have never experienced being scammed in a digital transaction, only sometimes there are problems, for example, I have transferred money but the recipient has not received the money. And when I looked for a solution, it turned out that it wasn't a signal problem but rather a problem with the bank. Honestly, when that happened, I felt panicked because the amount was quite large.

[The Cryptovator]

My government has been encouraging the use of digital payments like mobile banking systems or online bank payments. According to the administration, printing paper money is quite costly nowadays; hence, the government is introducing their own payment system along with the existing digital payment system. But the problem is only smartphone users are familiar with digital payments, and a large number of old people aren't familiar with making payments through QR codes or digitally.

In my country paper money still dominates. Even a lot of shops don't accept digital payments. There are some difficulties in my country in getting digital payment gateway. So we have to overcome first the difficulties, and the government must need to be soft regarding issuing digital payment gateways. Abroad I have seen you can even make digital payments at the tea store. But in my country, even you can't make digital payments at some big shops except for well-known brands.

[DanWalker]

Cash? I have not seen any cash payment in years. I even worked in a shop, where people bought stuff everyday all the time, and I can tell you that out of 100 payments daily, only like 5 of them were pure cash, everyone paid with credit card. Do we consider credit cards as digital or not?

Because let's be honest, it's a digital way of paying, it goes from your bank account to my bank account without ever paying the cash itself. Is it physical because we have a card involved and card is a physical thing. But that's not cash, but it is not purely digital neither. I have seen more and more people use their mobile phones to pay with QR these days, that number is increasing. So you have to realize, things aren't always the same when you look into details.

This will depend on the country you live in, the region and where you work. Even though digital payments are becoming more popular and preferred, I guess there are still many countries that use cash instead of digital payments.

Contrary to what you experience, my family is also a small business and interestingly most transactions are still done in cash, not digital payments. People here still prefer to use cash, only a few young people prefer to use digital payment methods.

So digital payments are becoming more popular, but cash isn't going away anytime soon.

[el kaka22]

Online shopping is becoming a lot more mainstream, in the sense that we are only using online shopping for most stuff. From groceries to items we need, I use just apps these days and do not really go to shopping myself directly. Do I still go to shops and buy stuff? Sometimes, I mean rarely but I sometimes do. However, most of the time that is not the case and I just do my daily stuff online.

This is why I have a feeling that most people will do the same thing as well. I think it's clear that most people will have the same type of approach and I think they are probably doing the same thing, which means that digital payments are a lot more common where I am, because we can handle everything digitally these days, no need for any cash required.

[Nothingtodo]

So digital payments are becoming more popular, but cash isn't going away anytime soon.

The world is updating, so different currency systems are updating and the nature of transactions is changing. Earlier, people used to buy and sell things in exchange for goods. Then, through exchange, it was converted into money. Now, money is changing and converted into digital currency. Now people do not want to use money as a means of transaction, but people are using more modern and technologically integrated digital payment systems. The world is updating because we are updating and we are updating because we are changing the traditional methods and using modern methods.

[libert19]

India also has qr payments prevalent (here it's called UPI), you will find qr codes to pay on pretty much every stall. Despite UPI being prevalent, there are older folks who are not used to pay online, so they prefer cash instead.

Cash? I have not seen any cash payment in years. I even worked in a shop, where people bought stuff everyday all the time, and I can tell you that out of 100 payments daily, only like 5 of them were pure cash, everyone paid with credit card. Do we consider credit cards as digital or not?

Because let's be honest, it's a digital way of paying, it goes from your bank account to my bank account without ever paying the cash itself. Is it physical because we have a card involved and card is a physical thing. But that's not cash, but it is not purely digital neither.

Cards are digital method to pay.

[Mr Reporter]

The world has gone digital and a lot of people run businesses now that deal on large amounts for them to do their daily transactions and you can't expect them to carry cash around. In most part of the world today digital payments seems to be more dominant in most areas. Even if cash payments is still preferable by some people it is still not compared to the rate at which people make use of digital payments now. But personally I prefer to use cash to run my daily expenditures, sometimes network and bank issues can disrupt a lot of things

I think a totally agree that the digital payments are the new normal, but cash still has that “no‑glitch” vibe when the network decides to take a coffee break . I love the speed of a tap‑and‑go, yet I keep a few notes in my wallet for those moments when the bank’s server decides to go on vacation.

Personally, I swing both ways swipe for big bills, stash some cash for the little things that would otherwise turn into a mini‑drama.