Cash Me If You Can: The Impacts of Cashless Businesses on Retailers, Consumers, and Cash Use
This month's WCW Pro-Cash Newsletter featured article is from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Franscico.
Perhaps the strongest argument against going cashless is that the practice denies access to goods and services for a segment of consumers. While popular perception may be that no one uses cash anymore, nearly 6.5 percent of U.S. households were unbanked and did not have access to financial services in 2017. In other words, 6.5 percent of the U.S. population, or 8.4 million households, did not have a bank-issued debit or credit card.
Adding in ‘underbanked’ households—households that have a bank account but use other financial services like money orders, payday loans, and check cashing—these numbers increase to 24.2 million households and nearly 19 percent of the U.S. population. These consumers rely heavily on cash to pay for their purchases.
