Most people in Canada still use cash for making purchases. Payments Canada’s recent report says the popularity of cash has dropped than other payment methods, including electronic, online and cards. The report was written analyzing 20.9 billion transactions that counted for over $8.9 trillion.
Payments Canada’s Report
According to authors Michael Tompkins and Viktoria Galociova, members of Payments Canada’s research unit, with payment methods and channels evolving in the point-of-sale and remote environments, users prefer faster and more convenient transactions.
The report says cash counted for 32.4% of all payments processed in 2015. The mentioned payments made up only 1.3% of the total amount of money exchanged. Moreover, cash has become less popular by almost a third since 2008.
As for checks and paper, they counted for 44.7% of the total amount of money exchanged and made up only 4.2% of payments. The things is that though fewer checks are being written, they represent larger amounts. The value of the average check increased by 10% between 2014 and 2015, accounting for over $46.000.
The Popularity of Online and Electronic Payments Is Growing
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The amount of online transfers increased by 47% between 2014 and 2015. Even though they counted for 0.6 percent of all transactions and 0.5% of their total amount, this was the highest growth rate with regard to payment methods analyzed.
Tompkins and Galociova noted that the amount of debit payments were increasing by 5.5% and the amount of credit card payments were growing by 5.3%. According to the researches, the reason had to do with convenience and rewards programs.
Canadians are using credit cards more frequently (21% growth) and have lowered their average balance by 21%. EFT of electronic funds transfer payments turned out to be the 2nd most favored payment method and one of the fastest growing methods by volume.