UK Cash & Card Payment Statistics Hub
Cash made up 8% of UK payments in 2025: 3.9 billion of 49.7 billion payments, down from 9% in 2024, according to UK Finance. Cards made 64% of all payments and contactless 39%. At the shop till cash counts for more: 19.2% of retail transactions in 2024, according to the British Retail Consortium. About 1.4 million adults still mainly use cash, and no UK law requires a business to accept it. Sources are linked at the foot of the page.
Last updated: 15 October 2026 · UK Finance publishes its payments report each summer; the British Retail Consortium publishes its payments survey in December
How the UK paid in 2025
| Payment method | Payments in 2025 (billions) |
|---|---|
| Debit card | 26.6 |
| Faster Payments and other remote banking | 6.2 |
| Credit card | 5.3 |
| Direct Debit | 5.1 |
| Cash | 3.9 |
| Other payment types (the remainder) | 2.6 |
| All payments (excluding CHAPS) | 49.7 |
Source: UK Finance, UK Payment Markets 2026. Total payments rose 2% on 2024. Cash lost its place as the second most-used payment method in 2024 and stayed fifth in 2025.
Cash's share of UK payments over time
| Year | Cash share of all UK payments |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 45% |
| 2020 | 17% |
| 2024 | 9% |
| 2025 | 8% |
| 2035 (forecast) | about 4% |
Source: UK Finance, UK Payment Markets 2026. UK Finance forecasts about 2.1 billion cash payments in 2035, around 4% of the total, while contactless rises to 41% of payments (26 billion) and cards to 65%. The forecasts are UK Finance's own projections.
Cash at the till: the retail figures
Cash is more than twice as common at a retail till as its share of all payments suggests. Its retail share rose in 2022 and 2023, then edged down in 2024, while shoppers made 20.4 billion retail transactions, down from 20.9 billion.
Do UK shops still take cash?
Retailers in the BRC and convenience-store surveys almost all still take cash; in LINK's survey of smaller high-street businesses, 14% had gone cashless in the past year. For what the law says about refusing cash, see the legal section below and our guide Can a UK business refuse cash?
Who still uses cash
Reliance on cash is concentrated in a small group: about 1.4 million adults mainly use it day to day, while 19 million use it once a month or less. The Treasury Committee found that Wales had the highest volume of post office transactions per head of population between 2022 and January 2025, and Northern Ireland the highest value. UK Finance's 2026 report gives no breakdown of cash use by age; its age figures cover mobile wallets, below.
Contactless and mobile wallets
UK Finance counts card and phone contactless together in its 39% figure. The £100 limit for a single contactless card payment stopped being a regulatory cap on 19 March 2026; what banks have done since is on our UK contactless and QR code statistics page.
What cards cost retailers
Card fees are the cost a "cash preferred" sign asks customers to help with. Cash has handling costs too: in LINK's March 2026 survey, 46% of small businesses paid more than £50 a month to deposit it.
Getting hold of cash: branches, ATMs and hubs
Scotland has lost 757 of its 1,041 bank branches since 2015, with two more scheduled to close (Which?). LINK has recommended 283 banking hubs in all, and £76.7 billion was withdrawn through the LINK network in 2025, down from £80.0 billion in 2024; that excludes withdrawals from a customer's own bank's machines. There were around 11,700 post offices in 2025 (House of Commons Library), more than the number of bank branches still open.
Since 18 September 2024, FCA rules have required 14 designated banks and building societies to assess the effect on cash access before closing a branch or ATM, and to fill any significant gaps. HM Treasury also commissioned an independent review of access to banking services in 2026, led by Richard Lloyd OBE; its recommendations were due in October 2026 and had not been published when this page was checked on 15 October 2026.
Cash acceptance and legal tender
"Legal tender" is a narrow technical rule about settling a debt, not about buying things, and the Bank of England says it will rarely come up in everyday life. Bank of England notes and Royal Mint coins are legal tender in England and Wales; in Scotland and Northern Ireland only Royal Mint coins are. Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes are not legal tender anywhere. Cards, contactless and cheques are not legal tender either.
In evidence to the Treasury Committee in 2025, the then Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, said the Government had no plans to compel businesses to accept cash. The Committee's report (April 2025) warned of the risk that a two-tier economy would lock the digitally excluded out, said it may become necessary to mandate cash acceptance in future if safeguards are not put in place, and asked HM Treasury to report acceptance levels to it every year. The Government's response (July 2025) declined annual reporting and committed to keep monitoring payments data; the Bank of England had added a question on cash-free shops to its consumer survey in early 2025. Why the sign belongs at the door rather than the till is in our guide: Can a UK business refuse cash?
What businesses search for when choosing a payment sign
These are impressions of our own pages, so they reflect where we rank as well as how many people search: a signal, not a survey. Our pages also appeared 190 times for signs saying a business accepts cards or contactless. Our reading: plenty of UK businesses want to ask customers to pay cash, not only to refuse it.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of UK payments are made in cash?
8% in 2025: 3.9 billion of 49.7 billion payments, down from 9% in 2024 and 45% in 2015, according to UK Finance. At a retail till the share is higher: 19.2% of transactions in 2024, according to the British Retail Consortium.
What percentage of UK payments are made by card?
64% of all UK payments in 2025 were made by card, according to UK Finance. Debit cards alone made 26.6 billion payments, 54% of the total, and 39% of all payments were contactless.
How many people in the UK rely on cash?
About 1.4 million adults, 3% of UK adults, mainly used cash in 2025 (UK Finance). The FCA found 5% of adults were heavy cash users in 2024, rising to 24% among the digitally excluded. About 19 million adults, a third, used cash once a month or less.
Will cash disappear in the UK?
Not on current forecasts. UK Finance expects cash to fall to around 4% of payments by 2035, about 2.1 billion payments a year. The value of Bank of England notes in circulation rose to £96.2 billion in February 2026, which the Bank links to people holding on to cash for longer.
Do UK shops still accept cash?
Most do. In a LINK survey of 1,116 high-street small and medium-sized businesses in March 2026, 77% of small and medium-sized retailers accepted cash, and 14% of the businesses surveyed had gone cashless in the previous 12 months. No UK legislation requires a business to accept cash.
How many bank branches have closed in the UK?
6,896 since January 2015, about 70% of those open then, according to Which?. 433 closed in 2025, and 314 closures had been scheduled for 2026 by late September. 250 banking hubs had opened by September 2026 (HM Treasury), towards a commitment of at least 350.
Where these figures come from
Sources
- UK Finance, UK Payment Markets Report 2026 (19 August 2026): press release and summary
- British Retail Consortium, Payments Survey 2025 (12 December 2025, covering 2024)
- British Retail Consortium, Payments Survey 2024 (5 December 2024, covering 2023)
- House of Commons Treasury Committee, Acceptance of cash, Sixth Report of Session 2024–25, HC 324 (30 April 2025)
- Treasury Committee, Acceptance of Cash: Government Response, HC 1128 (12 July 2025)
- House of Commons Library, Access to cash and banking services, CBP-9453 (16 March 2026)
- Which?, Bank branch closures: is your local bank closing? (28 September 2026)
- LINK: The ATM network (21 August 2026), How people use cash, research on cash acceptance on the UK high street (6 March 2026) and bank branches and banking hubs (October 2026)
- HM Treasury, UK's 250th banking hub opens in Chepstow (18 September 2026) and Review into access to banking services begins (8 June 2026)
- Financial Conduct Authority, PS24/8 Access to cash and policy statement PDF, which lists the 14 designated firms (July 2024; rules in force 18 September 2024); Greater flexibility to be given in setting future contactless limits (19 December 2025)
- Bank of England, What is legal tender? and Annual Report 2026 (June 2026)
- Royal Mint, Legal tender guidelines
- Cherry Grove Craft, Google Search Console, 16 July to 13 October 2026: payment-sign searches
Figures are quoted from the named publisher and rounded as published. Forecasts are the publisher's own projections. Checked 15 October 2026.
More data and guides
Cherry Grove Craft makes engraved payment signs, including Cash Preferred, Card Payments Only, Cashless and Please Pay Here, in FSC-certified oak veneered MDF, made to order in North Wales for cafés, shops, salons and market stalls.