Younger people shunning cash for cards, says Pennies
Howard Lake | 2 November 2012 | News
One in ten 25-34 year olds never carry physical money, relying entirely on debit and credit cards, according to research by The Pennies Foundation, the charity that provides top-up donation services for consumers.
Overall 5% of all UK adults no longer carry cash, and 33% of adults regularly leave the house without carrying physical cash.
If these are the first signs of the cashless society, then it could start to limit the income charities receive from street and counter collecting tins.
Advertisement
The survey into attitudes to charitable donations also found that many people don’t bother to pick up coins dropped on the ground. Less than half of us (47%) would bother to pick up a penny on the street, while a quarter (25%) would not even bother to pick up anything less than 20p, and a further 8% would never pick up any coins at all.
The Pennies Foundation cites the findings as evidence that charities need to adapt to secure ‘change’ from electronic transactions in shops, restaurants and other businesses.
Alison Hutchinson, CEO of The Pennies Foundation, said: “Our research shows that 62% of Britons will drop a few pennies into a charity box while shopping, but more than half of us have noticed a decline in these physical boxes. This, combined with the growing numbers of people choosing to pay by card and not carry cash, means the traditional way of donating small change to charity is under threat. We hope that with the introduction of Pennies, that doesn’t have to happen.”
Since it launched nearly two years ago, Pennies has raised over £750,000 for charities, with the top up donate option being used over 3 million times.
www.pennies.org.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.