A new study by leading travel money retailer No1 Currency has found that UK consumers – and in particular the younger generation – are once again embracing cash to help them budget and manage costs amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Following the ‘cash-stuffing’ trend of recent years, where younger people helped control their budget by putting aside different amounts of cash into envelopes marked as bills, car, going out, travel, etc., the latest trend for the younger generation is to adopt a ‘cash-only’ lifestyle at weekends, withdrawing their money and spending only cash until Monday.
With rising fuel costs and other general price increases coming thick and fast across the UK, a shift towards more conscious spending habits is taking place.
“The younger generation is learning what we all oldies were doing for decades,” says Simon Phillips, managing director of No1 Currency. “People are putting cash first to enable them to budget better, have more intention and be more mindful with their spending.”
The advantages of cash for consumers
As well as helping with controlling daily spend and preventing impulsive card payments, cash offers many more advantages including:
- Protection when banking or IT systems go down – the European Central Bank widely encourages people to keep money at home and carry some cash with them as a backup
- Privacy of data – cash is non-traceable, unlike card/digital payments
- Making you less vulnerable to fraud – the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2025 states that there was £1.17B stolen through fraud last year – and that number is rising
- Inclusivity – cash can be used by anyone, from any demographic
How does the ‘cash-only’ lifestyle affect businesses?
While this increase in using cash doesn’t mean that digital payments are becoming unpopular, it does mean that consumers want the choice of how to pay, and for those businesses that are considering going cashless, they risk losing more and more customers who are now turning back to cash to help control their spending to ease the ever-rising cost-of-living.
The simple fact is that many consumers are now withdrawing the exact amount of cash they can afford to spend to avoid impulse spending on cards and banking apps that can quickly add up to overspending. Physically touching and spending cash brings control and makes budgeting so much easier, and if your establishment no longer accepts cash, you’re likely to lose business as a result.
It’s also worth considering what would happen as and when banking or IT systems go down, which is becoming more and more regular each year. The latest research (Raconteur, September 2025), shows that a staggering 81% of retailers experience POS downtime at least once a year, with incidents ranging from basic network issues or software updates lasting a few hours to more serious issues lasting several days, usually caused by malicious cyber-attacks.
Cyber attacks are rising at an exponential rate, surging by over 74% in 2025, meaning that 41% of retailers in the UK experienced a cybersecurity breach last year.
This equates to a loss of an estimated £1.6 billion in sales annually across the board, and it’s not just smaller businesses affected – many famous name high street retailers have been impacted and will continue to be as fraudsters become more sophisticated.
The Volumatic Solution
Having led innovation in cash handling for over 50 years, Volumatic are the experts in helping businesses with their cash handling requirements, however big or small. We help businesses in all industries, including the likes of Tesco, Co-op, Halfords, Dobbies and Card Factory to help them handle cash with ease, become more efficient, more secure and save them money.
Accepting cash – and keeping your customers happy by giving them more choice – is easy with Volumatic’s range of cash handling solutions.
Fraud/counterfeit prevention can be easily remedied by Volumatic’s forgery detectors, including the BV20 SD and the BV30 SD – both are Bank of England tested, with the BV30 SD meeting the BoE’s Gold Standard Framework, meaning it can eliminate all known forgeries from entering your business, plus they are compact enough to sit at your POS discreetly.
And for those concerned about cash security, look no further than our range of CounterCache deposit devices. From basic devices that keep your cash stored securely and out of sight at POS to our all-in-one intelligent deposit device, the CCi, we’ve got you covered.
The CCi also boasts its very own cash management software, CashView Enterprise, that makes reporting and accounting quick and easy. This software supports your CCi devices, and you’ll be kept informed in real time with management and banking reports across your entire estate of till points.
Volumatic Managing Director James Harris said: “Cash is resurgent and year after year we are seeing it being embraced more and more across all demographics, particularly Generation Z and Baby Boomers.”
“It’s important for all businesses right now to carefully consider the payment methods your business is happy to accept, think about the impact on your customer base, and Volumatic is here to help reduce your cash handling costs. You might be surprised at how easy our solutions make things and how much money we can save you.”
