2024-02-17 03:27:54
Digitalization makes many things easier: shopping, dealing with authorities, investing money. But paper money is bucking the trend. That’s why cash should remain important in the future.
Cash is still the most popular means of payment in Germany. But access to cash is becoming more difficult. This is the result of an online survey by the opinion research institute eye square on behalf of the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv).
According to the survey, for around a quarter of the 1,000 Internet users aged 16 and over surveyed, the path to withdrawing cash has become longer in the past three years. The costs for a cash withdrawal have increased for 23 percent of those surveyed. And 27 percent of those surveyed stated that they had been in the situation of not being able to pay in cash at least once in the past six months because paying in cash was no longer possible.
Availability and acceptance of cash is decreasing
The vzbv points out that there are increasingly greater challenges in everyday life when it comes to cash. For example, retailers and restaurateurs repeatedly unilaterally refused cash, ATMs were dismantled and bank branches were closed.
The vzbv is therefore calling for barrier-free access to cash, which must be organized efficiently and protected by law, says vzbv board member Ramona Pop at the opening event of the National Cash Forum. “As the voice of consumers, the vzbv is particularly active in the question of how access to cash can be organized in the future.”
Cash payment option should be retained
Consumers must continue to have the opportunity to choose between cash and digital payments in the future, says Pop. “Paying with cash is easy, anonymous, leaves no data and can be used universally.”
The National Cash Forum should make an important contribution to making paying with cash future-proof, as this is important for consumers, Pop continued. The Bundesbank’s National Cash Forum will start with a kick-off event on February 16, 2024. The aim is to enable an exchange on cash issues between everyone involved in the cash cycle in Germany.