It's very rare today to see a person whip out a wad of cash anywhere unless they're over a certain age and have a cash business.
Most people today use a debit or credit card for the vast majority of their purchases.
About 19% of American consumers will use cash for at least half of their purchases.
Cash-only consumers represent 18.2% of those who will use cash for at least half of all purchases.
The share of American consumers using only cash declined 30.0% from 2022 to 2024. That's a pretty good drop in just two years.
We asked our listeners if there was any circumstance where they needed to use cash. I always use cash to get gas, probably a habit developed when the cash price was always cheaper than the price if you use a card.
Also, a lot of credit card fraud has been perpetrated at certain gas stations. Ain't nobody got time fuh dat.
So, we asked our listeners to tell us when they absolutely need to have cash.
A good answer was on a Jersey boardwalk. Sure, there are tons of shops that take cards, but to play games or grab a quick bite, cash comes in handy, especially to fill that tip jar for the kids who work on the boardwalk.
Also, the many parking lots at the shore that might only take cash, and of course the small mom-and-pop shops that only take cash. A lot more parking lots at sporting events take credit cards when it used to be a cash-only transaction a few years ago.
In Europe, Malta led the group of countries in the proportion of cash to non-cash transactions in 2021, with 77 percent of all transactions carried out in cash. Other Mediterranean countries also saw high cash transaction rates.
This contrasted with Canada and the United States, where their surveys suggested a far lower market share of cash. Cash may disappear completely soon. According to the Brookings Institute, that's inevitable.
It's happening in other countries around the world, but will Americans and New Jerseyans be willing to give up their cash altogether?