Two-thirds of UK adults were signed up to at least one mobile payment service in 2025, according to the latest annual report from banking trade body UK Finance, as consumers increasingly tap their phones rather than reach for a bank card. The same data shows that while cash use is still falling, the rate of decline is easing, suggesting notes and coins will remain relevant for many people well into the next decade.
Ten years after Apple Pay first launched in the UK, mobile payments have moved from a novelty to a mainstream habit. Shoppers are now routinely storing card details on phones and smartwatches, making contactless payments verified by a fingerprint or facial scan rather than typing in a PIN.
Who is using mobile wallets the most?
Younger consumers remain by far the heaviest users of mobile payments, though older age groups are catching up. More than 80% of people aged 16 to 34 make regular mobile payments, compared with 22% of those over 65. Among all mobile wallet users, nine in ten have their debit card set as the default payment method on their phone, with the rest relying on a registered credit card — a pattern that points to phones being used for everyday, routine spending rather than occasional purchases.
"Our latest data show that the UK is now a predominantly digital economy when it comes to making and receiving payments," said Adrian Buckle, head of research at UK Finance.
Is cash disappearing?
Not as quickly as once predicted. The UK Payments Market report found that debit cards, including those loaded onto phones, remained the single most common way to pay in 2025, accounting for 54% of all transactions, with contactless payments of all kinds making up 39%. Cheques, which regulators had once planned to phase out entirely by 2018 before MPs intervened, have shrunk to just 0.2% of payments, with 77 million written last year.
Cash fared better than cheques but continued its long decline, being used in 3.9 billion transactions, or 8% of all payments made in the UK last year, according to a report by the Standard. UK Finance forecasts that this will roughly halve again by 2035, to around 4% of payments, or about two billion transactions a year. Separate UK Finance card-spending figures cited by the same report show 2.06 billion debit and credit card transactions took place in April 2026 alone, a fall of 3.9% compared with April 2025, reflecting how quickly the wider payments landscape continues to shift.
Even so, the report was clear that cash is not destined to vanish entirely.
"Rather than the UK becoming a cash-free society over the next decade, the UK will transition to an economy where cash is less important than it once was but remains widely valued and still preferred by some," the report said.
Who still relies on cash day to day?
Nearly 50 million people used a cash machine at some point last year, and according to the Standard's report, around 1.4 million UK adults mainly rely on cash for everyday spending, while a further 19 million use it once a month or less. UK Finance's wider 2025 payment markets summary also notes that cash slipped further down the ranking of payment methods in 2024, no longer the second-most-used option behind Direct Debits, Faster Payments and credit cards, as mobile wallets and contactless payments continue to erode traditional card-and-cash habits.
Nick Quin, from Link, which oversees the UK's network of cash machines, said the pattern was consistent across the country.
"Cash withdrawals are falling across every part of the country. More people find it convenient and prefer to pay using contactless cards and digital wallets on smartphones, but millions still rely on cash day in, day out. People on lower incomes rely more heavily or entirely on cash to budget, which is why our job is to protect access to cash for as long as people need it."
The shift towards contactless spending is also visible beyond retail. Churches in Northern Ireland, including St Columb's Cathedral and St Augustine's, have installed contactless card terminals to collect donations, reflecting how deeply tap-to-pay habits have spread since the pandemic. Regulators have also been adjusting the rules around contactless spending: the Financial Conduct Authority earlier this year removed the £100 contactless card limit, giving banks discretion to set their own thresholds, although most lenders have so far kept their existing limits in place with fraud safeguards intact.
Not every policy conversation is moving in favour of digital payments, however. A government review of disability benefits in England and Wales is currently examining alternatives to cash payments for some claimants as part of a broader effort to reform the Personal Independence Payment system, underlining how cash retains a specific role for certain groups even as its overall use declines.
What happens next?
UK Finance's payment markets report is published annually, meaning the next edition is expected to update these trends and refine forecasts for both mobile and cash payments in the UK. Until then, the current data suggests a gradual, rather than abrupt, transition away from notes and coins, with cash likely to remain a fallback option for millions of people even as digital wallets become the default for the majority.
