Stress-free spending: why payment choice matters for disabled people

Lily Smith

Research on payment preferences in the UK has rarely explored how preferences and experiences vary by disability type, often treating disabled people as a homogenous group. Recent Bank of England research addresses this gap by focusing on the payment preferences and behaviours of different disability types and shows that, for disabled people, payment choice is crucial for reducing stress, building confidence, and supporting independence.

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War and payment innovation: the adoption of paper currency in Britain

David Rule

Digital currencies and stablecoins have increased interest in how new forms of money are adopted. Looking to three episodes from the 1690s to the First World War, this post considers how paper currency replaced coin in Britain, an historical example of adoption of new money. The underlying drivers were not technological changes but wars, leading to actual or feared shortages of coin, and a need to take specie out of internal circulation in order to meet overseas outflows. The public authorities took the initiative and created trust successfully in the new money. This is the first of a series of planned posts by Bank staff on past payment innovations.

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Parental guidance: the influence of parents on young people and their attitudes towards cash

Lily Smith

Like mother, like daughter? Like father, like son? Despite the increasing prevalence of digital payments in today’s world, young people continue to use cash. The persistence of cash use, even among youngsters who have grown up with debit cards and smartphones, raises interesting questions about the factors that influence young people’s payment choices. Are they really rebelling against their parents or are they more like them than they care to admit? It seems that young people are following in their parent’s footsteps and choosing to use cash because their parents do so. And instead of rolling their eyes at their advice, young people are in fact turning to them for hints and tips on money management.

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Cash stuffing versus girl maths: how do people budget in a digital world?

Zahra Damji and Eleanor Hammerton

The best purchases in life are free. How’s that possible, you ask? Well, pay with cash of course! The idea that anything bought with cash is free because the money is spent when you make the withdrawal, not when you make the purchase, is one example of the TikTok phenomenon #girlmath. This belief, which is not gender or age specific, contradicts headlines that suggest people are switching to cash to help them with budgeting. We draw on an online survey of UK adults conducted by the Bank of England in 2023 to explore how people budget in an increasingly digital world. We find that, rather than turning to cash, contactless is king when it comes to budgeting.

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