So if millennials aren’t using cash, who is?
When you buy your morning latte, do you pay cash or charge it? A recent survey by creditcard.com found that if you’re a millennial, the chances are about 50-50. Moreover, mobile payment options are tilting those odds in credit’s favor.
But while millennials appear to be turning away from cash, their elders still prefer it, says Matt Schulz, an analyst at creditcard.com.
“For those who are 65-and-older, for example, about 82 percent of them prefer cash,” he says.
The survey also found a country-city divide when it comes to cash. While 80 percent of people living in rural areas prefer paying with greenbacks, only around 60 percent of city dwellers do.
The survey didn’t drill into why, but University of Washington professor David Stearns says we can get a few clues by looking at the “unbanked.”
“So you’ve got to remember not everybody has a bank account,” Stearns says.
And those people have to use cash. Stearns says about 8 percent of households in the U.S. fall into this category. He says cash also remains a part of our culture.
“When you’re travelling and you want to tip the person who carries your bag,” Stearns says. Or when the plate comes around in a Christian church; it’s important to be able to put something tangible in that plate.
Stearns said folks have been predicting the end of cash since the 1960s, but he doesn’t see it happening anytime soon.
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