Study: Use of cash, checks on decline during pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is altering the way Americans pay and shop.

According to a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers from financial services technology provider FIS, 45% of respondents said they are using a mobile wallet of some type and 16% indicated they are now using paper-based currency less than before the pandemic. 

Additionally, 31% of respondents said they would use contactless or mobile wallet payments instead of cash and checks in the aftermath of COVID-19. Four in 10 respondents said they will shop online more in the future than in-store.

Other interesting statistics include:

•    38% of respondents said they will rely on food delivery services and take-out more often than they did before the pandemic.

•    Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents cannot meet financial obligations for longer than six months. This figure rises to roughly three-quarters of millennials (74%) and Gen Xers (76%) who say they do not have enough savings to last longer than six months.

“Once consumers begin using convenient new digital services, few tend to go back to their old habits, so we expect this to be the new normal going forward,” said Mladen Vladic, GM, loyalty, FIS. “We are now further along on our path towards becoming a cashless society in the U.S., and perhaps looking at the end of the paper check altogether.”