Will you still be able to pay in cash?

The use of cash is decreasing year by year. And the health crisis has only accelerated this trend, as shown, for example, by the Covid-19 barometer of BNP Paribas Fortis.

‘Before the lockdown, 88% of card use was for electronic payments and 12% for cash withdrawals. After the lockdown, card use for electronic payments increased to 91%. “Once consumers have switched to electronic payments, they don’t easily revert to their old habits,” notes Michael Boedts, head of the payment cards and digital payments department at BNP Paribas Fortis.

The big winner is contactless payment, which lets people pay for their purchases simply by holding their payment card in front of a terminal. In 2020, the use of contactless debit cards at BNP Paribas Fortis increased threefold compared to 2019. It is true that contactless payment is even easier than before. For example, the limit per payment has been raised from 25 to 50 euros. And the number of contactless payments that you can make in succession before having to enter your code has risen from 50 to 100 euros.

So we are indeed using less cash than before. And yet, there is no need to fear that it will disappear in the near future. Find out why in this article.

About Ask Your Bank

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we want to help you gain a greater understanding of money matters, which is why we asked more than 1,000 Belgians what their main money-related questions and concerns are. With the Ask Your Bank series, we aim to make your life easier by addressing those matters in a fully transparent way: another example of Positive Banking.