Particularly small amounts of money are frequently paid for by card. (picture alliance/Arne Dedert/dpa/archive)
2018 was the first year that German consumers paid more by credit or debit card than they did in cash, Cologne research institute EHI said in a study released Tuesday.
In Europe's largest economy, cash has traditionally been the main means of payment in point-of-sale transactions.
But according to the EHI study, the trend is changing. Germans paid some 208 billion euros (233 billion dollars) in cash in 2018, while 209 billion euros were paid by credit or debit card, the study found.
EHI chief Horst Rueter said that the turning point was propelled by contactless payment, which uses radio-frequency identification or near field communication for making secure payments.
Contactless payment "has been adopted much more easily than even the optimists expected," Rueter said, adding that particularly small amounts of money are frequently paid for this way.
Other experts are less certain that Germans will forgo cash payments. "Germans are and remain lovers of cash," said Holger Sachse of Boston Consulting Group.
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A single purchase
