Cash vs Card in Australia in 2026: What the RBA's Consumer Payments Survey Means for Your Money

Cash Is No Longer Dying as Fast as Many People Assumed

For years, the easy story was that Australia was going cashless and that was basically the end of it. Cards, mobile wallets and online payments kept taking share, bank branches kept shrinking, and cash looked like a legacy payment method on borrowed time.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s April 2026 Bulletin article on the 2025 Consumer Payments Survey tells a more interesting story. Cash use is still far below where it was a decade ago, but the decline has clearly slowed. In a lot of settings, it has stabilised.

That matters for households, small businesses and policymakers. It means cash is no longer just a nostalgia issue. It’s a resilience issue, an inclusion issue and, for some people, a budgeting tool that still works better than any app.

The survey was based on a representative sample of 1,200 Australians who recorded their transactions over seven days. That gives us one of the clearest reads on how people are actually paying in Australia right now.

The Numbers That Actually Matter

Here are the headline figures from the RBA’s 2025 Consumer Payments Survey, published in April 2026.

That is not a “cash is dead” dataset. It is a dataset showing that cash has become a minority payment method, but still a meaningful one.

Why Cash Has Stabilised Instead of Disappearing

The first reason is simple. Cash still solves problems that cards and phones don’t solve as neatly.

The RBA found Australians keep using cash for:

• budgeting and spending control
• paying merchants that only accept cash
• paying family and friends
• privacy and security reasons
• backup during outages or emergencies
• low-value everyday transactions

This lines up with what many households already know. Digital payments are convenient, but convenience is not the only goal. If you’re trying to keep a weekly grocery budget to $250, keep weekend spending under $150, or make sure a teenager doesn’t blow through their money in three taps, cash can still be the cleanest tool.

The second reason is resilience. Australia has had enough payment outages, internet interruptions and regional service gaps that many people now see cash as insurance. The RBA said three-quarters of respondents held cash in their wallet, and two in five also held cash outside their wallet, typically for contingency purposes.

The third reason is access to essentials. From 1 January 2026, the Australian Government mandated that grocery stores and petrol stations accept cash, with exemptions for certain small businesses. That policy alone reinforces the idea that cash remains part of core economic infrastructure.

Cash Still Matters More for Some Australians Than Others

One of the most useful parts of the RBA survey is that it cuts through the idea that only one narrow group still uses cash.

Cash was used across all demographic groups. But some groups used it more often:

• older Australians
• lower-income households
• some people in regional areas
• people with limited digital access
• some Australians with disability
• victim-survivors who need financial privacy and control
• people in remote communities, including some First Nations communities

The RBA noted that around 10% of respondents aged over 65 used cash for all their transactions in 2025. That does not mean older Australians do not use digital payments. It means cash remains meaningfully embedded in daily life for a lot of them.

For lower-income households, cash often acts as a hard spending cap. If you have $400 in envelopes for groceries, fuel and school costs, you cannot accidentally overspend in the way you can with buy now, pay later, stored cards or credit.

The Budgeting Value of Cash Is Easy to Underestimate

A lot of financial content treats payment method as a lifestyle preference. In practice, it can change behaviour.

A household earning $6,800 a month after tax might set a budget like this:

If that household repeatedly blows out groceries by $150 and entertainment by $120 each month, their annual overrun is:

• Groceries: $150 x 12 = $1,800
• Entertainment: $120 x 12 = $1,440
• Total annual budget leak: $3,240

For some people, moving those categories to cash envelopes is enough to stop the leak. That is not because cash is morally better. It is because the friction is different.

You physically see the money leaving. You know when the envelope is nearly empty. There is no delay between spending and the emotional signal that you’ve spent too much.

The Surcharge Issue Is Bigger Than It Looks

The RBA survey found around 20% of respondents said they wanted to use cash to avoid surcharges on other payment methods. That makes sense. In an environment where a small coffee, takeaway lunch or chemist run already feels expensive, even modest payment fees stand out.

Let’s say a household makes $2,200 a month in card-paid discretionary purchases and faces average surcharges of 1.0% on some of those transactions. That’s $22 a month, or $264 a year. At 1.5%, it becomes $33 a month, or $396 a year.

That is not life-changing money, but it is not nothing either, especially when combined with higher rent, insurance and grocery costs.

The good news is that the RBA has already signalled a change. It said surcharging on designated payment networks should be removed from 1 October 2026 following its review of merchant card payment costs and surcharging rules.

If that change lands as expected, it could modestly reduce the incentive to use cash for small purchases. But it probably will not eliminate it. Some households will still prefer cash for control, privacy or outage backup.

Why a Cash Backup Still Makes Sense in 2026

The RBA data on wallet cash is one of the most practical findings in the whole survey.

• Median cash held in wallet: about $65
• Median in-person purchase: about $23

That suggests the typical person carrying cash could cover roughly two to three ordinary in-person purchases during a short electronic payment disruption.

For a household emergency kit, that matters. If EFTPOS goes down, power is disrupted, or mobile coverage drops, a stash of physical cash can bridge the gap for fuel, groceries, medicine or transport.

A simple household cash-backup plan might look like this:

This is not about storing large sums at home. It is about keeping a practical amount of accessible backup cash.

Access to Cash Is Getting Harder

There is a tension in the RBA results. Cash use has stabilised, but cash access is getting less convenient.

The survey found:

• around 75% of respondents reported convenient access to cash withdrawal services
• around 65% reported convenient access to cash deposit services
• perceptions of convenience have declined since 2022

The RBA linked this to fewer bank branches and fewer bank-owned ATMs. People may still be able to get cash, but it is more likely to be through an independent ATM or Bank@Post outlet.

That matters because convenience shapes behaviour. If getting cash means a 15-minute detour, a fee-charging ATM and unpredictable availability, people are more likely to stop using it, even if it would otherwise suit them.

It also matters for small businesses that still need float cash, accept notes and coins, or bank their takings. Less convenient deposit access raises handling costs.

What This Means for Small Businesses

If you run a small business, the 2026 environment is awkward but manageable.

You have to balance four realities:

1. Most customers prefer electronic payments.
2. A meaningful minority still want to use cash.
3. Some essential-business settings now have mandatory cash acceptance rules.
4. Surcharge settings may change again from 1 October 2026.

A sensible approach for many small businesses is:

• keep accepting both cash and low-friction digital payments
• monitor surcharge settings carefully
• review EFTPOS and merchant service fees every 6 to 12 months
• hold an outage procedure, including float cash and manual receipt capability
• clearly display accepted payment methods before checkout

If your average sale is $18 and you process 8,000 card transactions a year, even a 1.1% merchant cost implies about $1,584 in annual payment expense. That cost is real. But so is the cost of turning away customers who only want to tap, or customers who need to pay cash.

What Households Should Do Right Now

This is the practical part.

1. Keep a realistic amount of backup cash

For many households, $100 to $300 is enough. If you live regionally, travel often, or have a larger family, you might keep more.

2. Use cash selectively if it helps your budget

Cash does not need to run your whole life. It can be useful for the categories that commonly drift, like takeaway, groceries, markets, social spending and kids’ discretionary money.

3. Pay attention to surcharges

If a merchant applies a fee to card payments, ask whether there is a fee-free option such as debit, bank transfer or cash. Across a full year, these small decisions add up.

4. Do not confuse convenience with resilience

A fully digital system is smooth until it fails. Keep at least one alternative payment method and some emergency cash.

5. Teach children and teenagers both systems

Digital literacy matters, but so does understanding physical money, budgeting and spending limits.

The Bigger Picture for Australia

The RBA’s April 2026 findings point to an economy that is becoming more digital without becoming fully cashless.

That is probably the realistic end state for Australia for quite a while.

Cash is now:

• less dominant as a day-to-day payment tool
• still important for inclusion
• still useful for low-value spending and budgeting
• still necessary as a backup during outages
• still relevant for essential purchases

That combination means policymakers cannot simply optimise for speed and efficiency. They also need to preserve optionality.

For households, the lesson is straightforward. You do not need to choose sides in a fake cash-versus-card culture war. Use the payment mix that gives you the best blend of convenience, control, cost and resilience.

Final Takeaway

Australia is not going back to a cash-first economy. But the latest RBA data shows it is not becoming fully cashless either.

Cash still accounts for 15% of payments by number, around half of Australians use it in a typical week, and one-third would face hardship or major inconvenience if cash became difficult to access. That is enough to make it worth planning around.

For households, the smartest move is usually hybrid, use digital payments where they are convenient, keep some cash as backup, and consider cash budgeting where spending tends to blow out.

Need Help Getting Your Household Finances Under Control?

If rising living costs, payment fees or overspending are putting pressure on your budget, it can help to get a second set of eyes on the numbers. Find a personal finance professional or accountant on WealthWorks to build a budgeting plan that actually works in real life, not just in a spreadsheet.