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How Consumers Get Cash: Evidence from a Diary Survey

Author

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  • Claire Greene
  • Oz Shy

Abstract

Most research on payment instruments focuses on how consumers pay or spend their money using a wide variety of payment instruments including cash. This report focuses on the inverse of the question of spending, that is, how do consumers obtain cash? Data from the 2017 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice shows that, over a three-day period, about 21 percent of survey respondents get cash via various methods, such as getting cash from a family member or friend, using an ATM, getting cash back at retail, visiting a bank teller, etc. We find that consumers mostly get cash from family and friends, followed by ATM withdrawals, and the average amount they get is around $100. The median is $40, and, in about half of the cases, consumers get cash in exact multiples of $20. Friday is the most popular day for getting cash in any way, while day-of-week differences are less pronounced for ATM withdrawals.

Suggested Citation

  • Claire Greene & Oz Shy, 2020. "How Consumers Get Cash: Evidence from a Diary Survey," Consumer Payments Research Data Reports 2019-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedadr:87819
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Bagnall & David Bounie & Kim P. Huynh & Anneke Kosse & Tobias Schmidt & Scott Schuh, 2016. "Consumer Cash Usage: A Cross-Country Comparison with Payment Diary Survey Data," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(4), pages 1-61, December.
    2. Briglevics, Tamás & Schuh, Scott, 2014. "This is what's in your wallet... and how you use it," Working Paper Series 1684, European Central Bank.
    3. Naoki Wakamori & Angelika Welte, 2017. "Why Do Shoppers Use Cash? Evidence from Shopping Diary Data," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(1), pages 115-169, February.
    4. Claire Greene & Oz Shy, 2015. "How are U.S. consumers using general purpose reloadable prepaid cards?: are they being used as substitutes for checking accounts?," Research Data Report 15-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    5. Tamas Briglevics & Scott Schuh, 2014. "This is what's in your wallet... and here's how you use it," Working Papers 14-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    6. David, Bounie & Abel, François & Patrick, Waelbroeck, 2016. "Debit card and demand for cash," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 55-66.
    7. Mr. Tanai Khiaonarong & David Humphrey, 2019. "Cash Use Across Countries and the Demand for Central Bank Digital Currency," IMF Working Papers 2019/046, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Schuh, Scott & Stavins, Joanna, 2010. "Why are (some) consumers (finally) writing fewer checks? The role of payment characteristics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1745-1758, August.
    9. Chen, Heng & Huynh, Kim P. & Shy, Oz, 2019. "Cash versus card: Payment discontinuities and the burden of holding coins," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 192-201.
    10. Christopher Henry & Kim Huynh & Rallye Shen, 2015. "2013 Methods-of-Payment Survey Results," Discussion Papers 15-4, Bank of Canada.
    11. Joanna Stavins & Huijia Wu, 2017. "Payment discounts and surcharges: the role of consumer preferences," Working Papers 17-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    12. Arango, Carlos & Huynh, Kim P. & Sabetti, Leonard, 2015. "Consumer payment choice: Merchant card acceptance versus pricing incentives," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 130-141.
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    Cited by:

    1. Greene, Claire & Prescott, Brian & Shy, Oz, 2022. "How people pay each other: Data, theory, and calibrations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 96(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cash; ATMs; Diary of Consumer Payment Choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System

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