J.L. M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | Cash or credit card? Make a transfer? Or perhaps use another digital payment method? For example, using your mobile pone, like with Bizum. These are the options available to you. But the final decision is yours. And the rest of the clients who use financial services. Managing payments, including providing cash, is something which the banks do. And they do it well. While you are thinking about how you are going to pay, I’m going to give you some statistics which illustrate what decision the rest of the Spanish banks’ clients have taken.
According to the Bank of Spain, payment by credit card has grown at double digit rates of over 10% in the last few months: 10.37% in the first quarter, 10.6% in the second and 11.16% in the third.
The amount of cash taken from dispensers has also increased, although at a more moderate rate: 2.84% in the first quarter, 3.18% in the second and 3.66% in the third.
An improving economy in both cases, but also changes in the way people pay and a greater commercial acceptance of credit cards (the decline in commissions for shops has undoubtedly helped), mean the balance is increasingly more in favour of electronic payments than cash. This partly explains why the issue of credit cards is growing almost 3% annually when the number of cash dispensers increased 1.7% at end-last year. But the number of payment terminals is rising at a rate of 4.5%. Have you decided yet?
