Consumer demand for cash transactions isn’t going away. The number of people in the UK mainly using cash for day-to-day spending has hit has hit a four-year high during the cost-of-living crisis, research from UK Finance shows.

Some 1.5 million adults mainly used cash in 2023 — marking the first rise since 2019 as a way of managing limited budgets, it suggests.

That was up from 900,000 the previous year, “reflecting the ongoing impact of the cost of living on those with limited incomes”, it said.

That’s worth remembering for retailers selling lower-priced items, especially after last week’s global outage that’s likely to mean consumers will ensure they have at least some cash on them.

However, the data also shows 72% of 16-24 year-olds regularly used their smartphones or watches for transacting.

At the other end of the scale just 27% of 45-54- year-olds used mobile contactless payments regularly, falling to just 8% of the over 65s, although the report said older age groups will be expected to catch up in the coming years.

“Mobile contactless payments are growing fast and one-third of adults are now making these at least once a month, with scope for usage to increase further,” UK Finance’s head of research Adrian Buckle said.

The report said usage will rise as mobile contactless payments include security features such as fingerprint technology, which means there’s no cap on payments.

And that’s going to have a big impact on higher-priced transactions where the physical debit or credit card currently reigns supreme.