Cash use holds at 7 payments a month
People are using less cash by share, yet the number of cash payments has stayed around seven a month since 2020.
You may tap your phone almost everywhere now, but cash is still the thing people keep for small moments, outages, tips, and backup plans.
Cash payments have been stuck at about seven a month per person since 2020.
- Cards and phones win for speed, points, and online buying.
- Cash survives because it works during outages and for small in-person payments.
- Older adults and lower-income households still rely on cash more than other groups.
The wallet is changing, not disappearing. You may use cash less often, but keeping some can still protect you when the screen, card, or network fails.
Behind the numbersOpen
The Federal Reserve’s Diary of Consumer Payment Choice asks U.S. consumers to record payments and cash holdings. The 2025 findings say consumers made an average of seven cash payments per month in 2024, a number unchanged since 2020. The same release says cash was 14% of all consumer payments in 2024, while credit cards were 35% and debit cards were 30%. Caveat: this metric counts number of payments, not dollar value, and it is U.S.-only.