Pub cash payments falling fast

Cash now accounts for just 40 per cent of payments in pubs - down from 90 per cent a decade ago - according to new research.

The Payments Council found that customers are increasingly paying with plastic, especially in pubs.

And the trend is set to continue as the research 'The Way We Pay 2010' predicted cash payments will fall to only 25 per cent of customer purchases by 2018.

The pub industry is running well ahead of the trend seen in the overall market as the Payments Council predicted that a much higher 45 per cent of total UK transactions will still involve cash in 2018.

The report states: "Pub spending is where the trend in the way we pay is shown most starkly.

"Just 10 years ago, 91 per cent of our pints were bought in cash. Now cash is just two fifths while debit cards are more than half," stated the report.

The advent of chip and PIN is understood to be a major driver of this shift in the fast-paced pub environment.

Debit cards account for much of this growing use of plastic, with only £65 billion spent on such cards in 1999 compared with £264 billion in 2009 and a forecasted £490 billion in 2018.

The report suggested technology and cultural changes are driving the trend away from cash: "The increased use of debit cards, and the advent of contactless card payments, as well as the passing of older, more conservative generations will push us further from cash. Cash is unlikely ever to disappear, but its decline may even accelerate as mobile payments come in."

Whichever way consumers are choosing to pay, the amounts they are spending in pubs and wine bars has increased dramatically. Expenditure hit £23 billion in 2009, up from less than £10 billion 10 years ago.