Buddy, can you spare a credit card?

People are carrying less cash, and are relying upon debit and credit cards for smaller payments, it has been found.

A third of people carry less than £10, and one in five people regard cash and plastic as interchangeable methods of payment. Over a third of transactions is now made with a debit card, and only a quarter are made with cash.

David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk, says: "Plastic can be fantastic, but relying on money we can't see is a reflection of how easy it has been to rely on credit in recent years.

"But since you are not paying in cash, it is all the more reason to take care as credit becomes more difficult to obtain. It is therefore more important than ever to build a decent savings pot because one day when you need to pull a rabbit out of the hat, you could find that all you have is a dead duck in your pocket."

The "EAT" chain of sandwich restaurants has recently installed payment readers, similar to the London Oyster cards which can debit travel costs, to enable cashless transactions in their stores.

March 31^st 2008

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