The following is an excerpt from
but unfortunately the article is no longer available at their website.
The article was at http://cnbceb.com/2005/11/01/killingcash/
Remember this was in 2005 and at that point cash payments had decreased by 4% over the last four years.
So where are we today? Check out the links at the bottom to see.
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"Killing Cash"
Cards are taking the place of cash. In the last four years, cash payments have decreased by 4%
In the most saturated nations an appetite for credit cards has historically then passed into interest in debit cards. Thus, for example, the UK has 3.4 million Visa credit cardholders in the UK and 42.4 million debit cardholders. Spain is Visa’s second-biggest European market with 19.6 million Visa credit cards and 17.2 million Visa debit card- holders. In contrast, the split is more marked in countries with more cautious reputations. France has 24.3 million Visa debit cards but just two million credit cards, and Ger- many’s periods of hyperinflation are clearly still felt as it has just 11.8 million Visa cards in total.
INCREASINGLY, CARDS ARE TAKING THE PLACE OF cash on the counter. Research agency Global Insight es- timates that, worldwide, cash payments have decreased by around 4% over the past four years as a percentage of total PCE. Christopher Rodrigues, chief executive of Visa International, says: “By 2010 Visa payments will make up more than 12% of PCE.” He adds that the company’s sales will exceed €3.2 trillion in 2006 and he is clear about what is driving Visa’s rapid growth.
“It’s growing at such a rapid rate because what was orig- inally thought of as a credit card is now seen as an electronic payment system,” he says. Visa’s consumer busi- ness now involves three types of card, reflecting a world where the customer is king, demanding payment choice and convenience. Visa has debit cards to pay now, credit cards to pay later, and to pay in advance, it has a new line of prepaid cards which attack cash by targeting groups that wouldn’t normally be entitled to credit cards – under 18s and people with poor credit records.
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