Poll: Do you prefer using cashless payments?

Cashless payments have become more popular than transactions using coins and notes for the first time, figures from the Payments Council show.

During 2014, 48% of payments made by consumers, businesses and financial organisations were in cash, down from just over half (52%) in 2013.

The Payments Council said that this marked the first time that the number of non-cash payments has overtaken those made with cash, reflecting the growth in technology and the use of debit cards as a handy way to pay.

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Despite the shift, cash remains king among consumers, who used it for 52% of all their payments in 2014. But even among consumers, the Payments Council said that the number of payments being made in cash is expected to fall below half in 2016.

The growth of online shopping and the emergence of new payment methods such as mobile and contactless payments have challenged the dominance of cash in recent years.

Around three-quarters of Britons now shop online, compared with just over half in 2008, according to a recent report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

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Contactless card payments, where a payment can be made with a single swipe of the card rather than having to enter a Pin number, are also becoming increasingly widely accepted, in places including Aldi, Barnardo's, Boots, Greggs, Ikea, JD Wetherspoon, London Tubes, M6 Toll and Marks and Spencer.

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Currently, the limit for a single contactless transaction is £20 - but from September 1 onwards a higher limit of £30 will be rolled out.