We are entering a new era of payment. Just as half a century ago, cards revolutionised the way we pay for services - and just as e-commerce disrupted the market as we entered the 21st century - now the march of mobile is changing the payment landscape. In 2014, for the first time, fewer than half of all payments by customers and businesses were made using cash.
Industry association Payments UK predicts that the volume of cash payments is set to fall by 30 per cent over the next decade as people migrate to debit cards, and particularly contactless payments. Every month, around 40m contactless transactions are made. Take the places where people are still most likely to spend their cash: newsagents, pubs or clubs and convenience stores. These are all environments where contactless payment is making significant inroads, and small payments are its most common usage. Currently, a quarter of all payments are for a value of less than £1, and more than half are for totals less than £5.
This is a widespread social shift. Last July, taxi driver Ian Cable became the first cabbie to accept payment by mobile phone, while the progress of Uber speaks for itself. Londoners can no longer count out their shrapnel to get on a bus, and now the arrival of Apple Pay means that commuters can even use their smart watch to pay for their journey to work, demonstrating the speed of the rise of 'wearables' in our increasingly digital economy.