The cashless movement has been around for years now, but until today, there are still lots of people who still prefer good ol’ fashioned cash. That being said, with a global pandemic at our doorstep, cashless payments has become an increasingly popular method of payment.
In fact, according to the latest findings from Visa’s Consumer Payments Study, it turns out that more than seven in ten Malaysians are supportive for the country to become a cashless society and 62 percent believe it can be achieved within the next five years.
A recent study has shown that 69 per cent of Malaysian respondents are planning to use cashless payment methods more often, and move away from cash. This trend is more apparent amongst the affluent segment, where 77 per cent indicated interest to do so. The top reasons for the potential increase in digital payments usage are due to convenience and wider acceptance of digital payments in the country.
“It is heartening to see the increase in digital payments usage by Malaysians in the country, especially contactless payments. This is aligned with our data, where close to half of all Visa face-to-face payments are contactless payments. In addition, Malaysia is one of the fastest growing countries in Asia Pacific in terms of contactless penetration and we are confident this growth will continue as we expand into new merchant category segments,”
Ng Kong Boon, Visa Country Manager for Malaysia.
On top of that, it turns out that less people are carrying around cash with them. Nearly two in five respondents stated that they are carrying less cash compared to two years ago. Sixty-nine per cent of respondents cited this was due to more merchants adopting cashless payments, and 65 per cent indicated it was due to safety concerns when carrying cash.
While going cashless is great and all, the problem now seems to be that there are too many options out there for us to go cashless with. Grab Pay, QR Pay, Boost, TnG eWallet.. the list goes on! Perhaps we should follow in China’s footsteps and stick to just two big players that’s accepted nationwide.
