What’s in Your Wallet? Are We Really Becoming a Cashless Society? 

I recently went shopping with my daughter, and her “purse” consisted of a little cardholder attached to her phone. 

Everywhere we went, she paid with either her phone or credit card. And, yes, she mocked me when I tried to get out exact change to pay my bill.  

There’s a long-running commercial campaign that asks, “What’s in your wallet?” – and these days, the answer increasingly seems to be anything but cash. A survey published last week by Rasmussen Reports showed that 55 percent of American adults have gone an entire week without paying for anything with cash. And according to the Federal Reserve, cash now accounts for only about 14 percent of all our payments, which averages out to 6 cash transactions per month. Credit and debit cards together account for about two-thirds, often leading to talk of a cashless society. 

That’s quite a change. Not that long ago, leaving home without cash seemed irresponsible. We needed it for parking meters, vending machines, toll booths, garage sales, restaurant tips, school fundraisers, and dozens of other little purchases. But today, some of those same places don’t even want it.  

What’s the Difference? 

There is a remarkably big generational difference – those 55 and older made an average of 10 cash transactions per month, but those aged 18–24 averaged only 2. Some of us learned how to handle money by literally handling money. We saved birthday money and earnings from babysitting and paper routes and put it into the offering plate and our piggy bank.

Younger people still earn money, of course, but their experience of handling it is fundamentally different.  

For younger Americans, digital payments are simply a normal part of life. They tap a card, click a button, or scan a phone. It is wonderfully convenient, but it is interesting that one of the most ordinary objects in American life has become something many of us can go days without touching. 

More Changes, Less Checks 

Cash isn’t the only thing disappearing.  

Remember standing in line at the grocery store and the lady in front of you pulled out her checkbook? Even if we ourselves wrote checks, you still had to stifle a groan, especially if you were in a hurry. Just a little over twenty years ago, Americans wrote over 42 billion checks. Now the number has fallen to about 9 billion. Still more than I thought but not nearly what it was. Credit and debit cards are steadily taking their place. 

And relatively quickly too. Bank credit cards didn’t take off until the 1960s. And if you think credit card companies are aggressive now, in the early days of credit cards, some banks were so aggressively competing for customers that they mass-mailed cards out to people who never requested them, which led to theft, fraud, and financial chaos.  

But despite all this, there are surprising statistics: 76 percent of us still carry cash, and 90 percent say we aren’t planning to give it up. So we aren’t a completely cashless society yet. We may have reached the point where carrying cash is becoming less about how we are going to pay for things and more about what we’ll do if the other ways don’t work. 

I suppose I should be glad my daughter still has room in that little phone wallet for a twenty-dollar bill. Just in case.