Cash Payments at POS Down 10 percent

The volume of cash used in point of sale transactions dropped by 10 percent from 2012-2013 as use of mobile payments and prepaid cards continued to surge, according to a recent report from Javelin Strategy & Research.

Javelin reports that traditional paper-based payments, like cash and check, are increasingly losing favor among consumers to alternative payments. In 2013, cash payments at POS terminals totaled $788 billion, down $86 billion from 2012, the report found. Javelin projects that figure to go own to $711 billion by 2019.

Cash, however, is still the most commonly used payment option for in-store purchases, with 65 percent of all consumers using cash to make a purchase in the seven days prior to the release of the report.

But with affordable options such as mobile card readers offered by the likes of Square, Intuit and PayPal allowing small merchants to accept electronic payments, Javelin predicts cash's dominance will be further eroded in the coming years.

[Related Content: Mobile Payments and Banks: Looking Forward]

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio