How Do Consumers Pay? (Hint: Cash Lives!)

Maybe you’ll be buying everything with your phone in 2020. But how are most consumers paying right now?

According to the 2010 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice, conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, cash is almost king — but not quite.

The survey tracks the total number of transactions carried out by U.S. consumers aged 18 and older via nine different payment instruments. The above image shows payment share according to transaction volume, not value.

Are you surprised? How do you suppose this chart will change over the next one, three, five, ten years?