‘Flush without cash’ – Adelaide Advertiser; ‘Cash losing lustre as card usage surges’ – Melbourne Age; ‘Cashless economy moves closer’ – The Australian, ‘King Cash’s reign comes to an end’ – West Australian, Perth.
Reading the Australian newspaper headlines last month would lead you to believe that cash use in Australia is on the way out. Once past the screaming headlines, however, there was generally more sober reporting of the third survey of ‘Consumers’ Use of Payment Methods’, a seven-day diary study by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
Since this original article was published in Currency News in July 2014 the Reserve Bank of Australia has gone on to conduct two further payment studies in 2016 and 2019, both charting a continued decline in cash use as alternatives, especially debit card, contactless payments and more recently faster payments powered by the New Payments Platform take hold.