Do you have a back-up if digital payment options go down?

What would you do if you want to pay for something with your digital wallet and it doesn’t work?

Technology can fail us at any time - but it can be a real problem if digital payment methods go down when we’re out and about.

In that instance, many of us will dip into our pockets and pay with cash instead.

But many of us are heading out without any notes and coins at all, so are completely unprepared if there’s an outage.

How many people rely on cashless payments?

According to research by ATM network Link, less than half (48%) of UK adults carry a physical wallet day-to-day.

That’s despite four-fifths (82%) of people saying that they do own one.

Figures also showed that 11% regularly leave home with a digital wallet as their only form of payment, and that 7% don’t carry any cash at all.

Yet most people - 61% in fact - have experienced payment failures.

And of these people, a fifth had to abandon their purchases, and more than one in ten had to ask others to foot the bill.

How common are tech failures?

We’ve seen several high-profile examples of technology letting us down in the last few months.

For example, there’s been a few high-profile cyber-attacks on businesses and a power outage in Spain and Portugal that led to bank and payment systems going down.

And according to the Treasury Committee, at least 158 banking IT failure incidents affected people’s ability to access and use services between January 2023 and February 2025.

“Such experiences are more common than we’d like to admit, and they hint at the impact a national outage could wreak,” Link said.

“That being said, in some of these cases, if customers had been carrying cash or a card on an alternative network, then their outing may have been uninterrupted.”

Link added that more needs to be done to help people recognise the possible drawbacks of relying on digital wallets, such as system errors and running out of battery.

Cash helps people stay in control of spending

Despite the growing popularity of digital payment methods, Link believes cash is still the most trusted way of paying, as it gives people a sense of control over their spending.

In particular, it helps them stay within a budget and understand what things really cost.

As a result, many people aren’t planning to dispense with cash just yet, despite so many other payment options being available.

In fact, 63% of people polled by Link said they don’t expect go completely cashless in the next year.