Debit sends cash tumbling

The amount of cash used to make retail purchases has tumbled to an all-time low, as consumers continue to step up their usage of debit cards.

The British Retail Consortium said consumers still splashed the cash for 54.4 per cent of transactions last year. But, as a percentage of the 10 billion retail payments surveyed, the use of cash declined by 6.7 per cent in the number of transactions and by 9.7 per cent by value last year.