In the US, 60% of transactions under $10 are paid in cash

calendar iconMay 9, 2017

Source

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Fransisco published an in-depth analysis on how cash is used in the US by the public from 1980 to 2015. The writers are compromised of the CPO Market Analysis Team, Wendy Matheny, Shaun O’Brien, and Claire Wang. 

Extract from FINDING 3: CASH DOMINATES SMALL-VALUE PAYMENTS:

'In 2015, cash continued to dominate small-value transactions, with cash being used for more than 50 percent of transactions under $25. As shown in Figure 7, cash was used for more than 60 percent of purchases under $10. For purchases between $10 and $24.99, cash was used 42 percent of the time. Between 2012 and 2015, the share of cash transactions under $10 fell five percentage points and cash’s share of purchases ranging $10 to $24.99 declined seven percentage points. Nonetheless, overall cash use for small-value transactions remains high...'

Download original report here

See executive summary here

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Last Updated: Feb 7, 2020