Dive Brief:
- Four in five consumers said they had used cash in the past 30 days, according to a Federal Reserve Financial Services survey of 6,079 U.S. consumers. The survey has tracked consumers’ spending habits annually since 2015.
- The majority (90%) of survey respondents said they will continue paying with cash in the future, according to the Fed survey released Aug. 4.
- Sixteen percent of survey respondents preferred cash as their top payment method, placing it third behind debit and credit cards, the survey found.
Dive Insight:
The Federal Reserve Financial Services’ Diary of Consumer Payment Choice survey signals consumers’ commitment to cash, although the findings indicate that Americans are slowly shifting away from legal tender.
While four in five consumers carried cash on their person between 2018 and 2024, that proportion declined from 79% in 2024 to 76% in 2025, the steepest year-over-year decline since 2018, the survey found. The average cash holding was $69 last year, the same as the prior year, the report said.
The share of consumers who had cash on their person at least one day held steady from 2021 to 2024 at 79%, according to the report.
Conversely, the share of consumers who store cash for emergencies has risen from 25% in 2016 to 45% in 2025, the survey found. The report attributed that trend to consumers increasing their precautionary savings following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Along with the Federal Reserve Financial Services’ report, previous research also suggests that consumers are still using cash.
A May survey from the Federal Reserve Financial Services also found that consumers cited cash as their third preferred payment method, behind debit and credit cards. Meanwhile, a 2025 survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that the share of consumers who made cash purchases in October 2024 fell to 83% that year from 87% a year prior.
While credit and debit cards are the dominant payment methods for most, consumers’ credit and debit card usage varies across incomes, the Federal Reserve Financial Services’ recent survey found.
On average, consumers made 47 payments per month last year, down slightly from 48 in 2024. Of those transactions, the share of credit card payments dipped from 17 to 16 year over year, but debit card payments rose from 14 to 15, according to the survey.
For households earning $150,000 or more, 60% preferred paying with credit cards, followed by debit cards (28%) and cash (7%). By contrast, households earning between $50,000 and $74,999 cited debit cards as their top payment method at 47%, followed by credit cards (33%) and cash (15%), per the survey results.
