75% of Germans Want Freedom of Choice When Paying
Feb 9, 2022
Consumers want to continue paying cash in future, according to a survey by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV). While cashless payment providers aim to squeeze cash out of the market, VZBV says this is not what consumers want and are calling on the government to future-proof cash.
Conducting over a thousand interviews with citizens aged 18 and over, VZBV found 75 percent of people want to retain a choice of whether to use cash or other payment options. This is a three percent increase over their 2019 survey.
Data from the Federation of German Consumer Organisations
Credit card providers, digital groups, banks and some retailers are pushing cashless payments at the expense of cash. This is not in the interests of consumers since the vast majority do not want to live without cash.
Heiko Fürst of VZBV’s Financial Market Observation team highlights the continued importance of cash and the need to ensure people have easy access to it. 32 percent of respondents in the survey reported ‘frequent or occasional’ difficulties obtaining cash. A lack of nearby ATMs was the most common problem. He also notes acceptance of cash can be an issue, with 11 percent of people saying they had had to pay by card when a retailer did not accept cash.
The recent rise in cashless payments has not reduced the number of cash advocates… [but] the proportion of consumers having problems withdrawing cash has gone up in the past two years.
VZBV urges the German government to take much-needed action in order to counter the dangers posed to cash by reduced access and acceptance. Mohn recommends a package of measures to guarantee easy and affordable access to cash alongside universal acceptance of it in the retail and restaurant sectors.
Cash offers control, freedom, data protection and competition. These are all important foundations of our social market economy.