As more and more people are switching to digital payment methods, an independent review has been set up to look at the impact on consumers.
The Access to cash review will be chaired by the former head of the Financial Ombudsman service Natalie Ceeney and will look at the impact of new technology including contactless cards, over the next 5 to 15 years and examine future needs.
Ms Ceeney advised that there is a need to make sure that nobody is left behind, what with the rise of contactless and digital payments the relationship between cash and consumers has changed.
Many people in the UK have already made the shift to paying for most things digitally but there are still between two and three million people in the UK still reliant solely on cash.
The review will be funded by Link, the Uk’s biggest cash machine network but is independent from it, and it will spend the next 6 months gathering data.
Link have advised that part of this review, Consumer groups, community representatives, small businesses, Industry and the general public will also be able to contribute their views.
Last month it emerged that debit cards payments had overtaken cash use for the first time, with contactless payments becoming a large part of our day to day spending.
An estimated 3.4 million people hardly used cash at all during the last year, with young consumers aged between 25 and 34 being the most likely to make contactless payments.
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