Preference for contactless payments continues to grow

Dutch consumers increasingly prefer contactless payments, both by debit card and through other methods such as mobile phones, smartwatches and other wearables. Cash use declined slightly in 2021: one in five point-of-sale payments was made in cash.

This share is considerably higher among people on lower incomes. They paid cash for almost one in three purchases at the point of sale. These are the findings of joint research by the Dutch Payments Association and De Nederlandsche Bank.

Number of point-of-sale payments remained fairly stable in 2021

In 2021, consumers in the Netherlands made slightly fewer payments at the point of sale than in 2020. This decline was partly due to the longer lockdowns imposed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Consumers made nearly 1.2 billion cash purchases that year, compared with 1.3 billion in 2020, a fall of almost 11%. The number of debit card payments was 4.5 billion in 2021, virtually the same as in 2020. As a result, the share of all point-of-sale payments settled in cash fell from an average of 22% in 2020 to 20% in 2021. Before the pandemic, 30% of purchases at the point of sale were still paid for in cash.

The total value of debit card payments rose from €116.7 billion in 2020 to €122.7 billion in 2021. The value of cash payments at the point of sale declined slightly, from €21.4 billion in 2020 to €20.1 billion in 2021. The average purchase amount has risen sharply in recent years. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was €21.64. In 2021, Dutch consumers spent an average of €25.55 per point-of-sale payment, an increase of more than 18%. Consumers therefore made fewer purchases but spent more on average per purchase. This rise can partly be explained by inflation: consumer prices were 2.7% higher on average in 2021 than in 2020.

Different forms of contactless payment are becoming increasingly popular

More Dutch consumers prefer to pay contactlessly, both by debit card and by mobile phone. At the beginning of 2020, half of Dutch consumers preferred contactless payments: 40% favoured contactless debit card payments and 9% mobile contactless payments. By the end of 2021, preference for contactless payments was 14 percentage points higher: 49% preferred to pay contactlessly by debit card and 14% by mobile phone. The growing popularity of these two methods came at the expense of traditional debit card payments, where the card must be inserted into the payment terminal.

Cash is still widely used by people on lower incomes

Dutch consumers on relatively low incomes use cash most often. They are more likely than others to say that cash helps them manage their spending better than debit card payments. Dutch consumers aged 75 and over used to be the group that used cash most frequently, but cash use within this group halved over two years to 28% of purchases. People in the highest income group use cash least often, for just over one in ten payments.

For all results of the joint research by DNB and the Dutch Payments Association into the use of cash and electronic payment methods for point-of-sale and person-to-person payments in the Netherlands in 2021, download the factsheet Payments at the point of sale, 2021.