For years, Australia looked like it was racing toward a cashless future.
Why Australians Are Quietly Returning to Cash
But a new Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) study suggests the story is more complicated: cash use has not disappeared, and in some ways it has stabilised — even edged higher. The RBA’s 2025 Consumer Payments Survey found that around 15% of payments were made in cash in 2025, up from about 13% in 2022, while around half of Australians used cash in a typical week. That does not mean cash has overtaken cards or digital wallets. It still makes up a much smaller share of total spending by value, at about 8%. But the survey shows cash remains especially important for everyday in-person purchases, where 19% of payments by number and 16% by value were made in cash. The RBA says cash use has “stabilised” in recent years after a long decline. One reason cash has proved stubbornly durable is simple usefulness. The RBA says many people still carry cash for unexpected transactions or as a fallback when electronic payments are unavailable. It also notes that cash plays a role as a store of value, par…
