UK consumers are making more payments with cash to help manage their spending, according to figures from UK Finance.
The number of cash transactions grew in 2022 for the first time in 10 years, increasing by 7% to 6.4 billion.
Growing fears about rising prices have led some people to make greater use of cash as a way of managing budgets, the banking industry body said.
However, the share of payments made using cash continued to fall as the total volume of payments increased.
The data suggests that there has been a shift towards more frequent transactions that are each worth a lower amount. Across all payment types, the total number of payments increased to 45.7 billion, up from 40.4 billion in 2021.
Debit cards remain the most popular payment method, with transaction volumes increasing by 18% during the year to just over 23 billion payments. As a result, for the first time, half of all payments (50%) were made using debit cards.
Payments made using credit cards increased by 19% and the total number of contactless payments increased by 30% to 17 billion.
Over the next decade, UK Finance forecasts continued growth in the use of debit cards and a decrease in cash payments in the long term.
