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UK mobile payments rise as cash decline slows
About 54% of UK payments were made using debit cards in 2025, while cash is forecast to fall to 4% of transactions by 2035.
Consumers in the UK are increasingly using phones to pay rather than carrying bank cards, according to new data published by UK Finance, a banking industry trade body.
The report shows that two-thirds of UK adults were registered with at least one mobile payment service last year, with mobile use rising since the launch of Apple Pay in the UK a decade ago. While cash use continues to decline, the data suggests the fall is slowing and that notes and coins are still expected to matter for many people over the next decade.
UK Finance said nine in 10 mobile wallet users have their debit card loaded as the default payment method, and more than 80% of people aged 16 to 34 make mobile payments regularly, compared with 22% of those over 65. It also reported debit cards were the predominant payment method in 2025, accounting for 54% of all payments, and contactless payments made up 39%.
The report forecasts cash transactions would halve to 4% of all payments in the UK by 2035, down from 8% last year, when notes and coins were used in 3.9 billion payments. Cheques have dwindled to 0.2% of payments, totaling 77 million written last year, according to the same data.