Substitute products, white label or smaller purchases. The changes due to the impact of inflation also come when it comes to paying and dealing with money in the purchase. The use of cash as a way of tying up spending gains weight in difficult times. "It can be an ally to control and calculate spending, it is the best way to do it and in times of uncertainty it helps," says Javier Rupérez, president of the Denaria Platform, which defends the use of cash. The logic is that by having the money in hand and managing it on a day-to-day basis, one realizes the disbursement that is made more than using the card, the great alternative.
“When the economy suffers, cash doesn't. It gives the user a lot of peace of mind and comfort for day-to-day management and control. With a card you can get out of control, be more impulsive”, says Policarpo Ledesma, commercial director of Prosegur Cash in Spain and Portugal. Data from the Bank of Spain show that the amount withdrawn from ATMs shrinks little during crises (2.9% in 2008, 2.6% in 2012). The main blow in recent history was in the pandemic, when in 2020 the value fell 18%.
It is still seeking to recover the flows prior to covid. “Once we got out of the restrictions, the increase has been exponential. We have not yet reached the data for 2019, we are 5%-8% below, but in June and July the traffic of trucks and the money to be counted grows 10% over last year," says Ledesma, who adds that they make fewer operations but more money is withdrawn.
“Unlike what was believed in a pandemic of the transfer to the digital system, cash is clearly recovering from the blow of covid,” says Rupérez. "There is demand for cash to exist, it is not a whim," she completes. According to the most recent statistics from the Bank of Spain, the preference for cash is 60.3% among young people between 18 and 24 years old, compared to 53% among those over 64 years old.
The moment of payment of the purchase, in any case, is the last step. Elisabet Ruiz Dotras, professor of Economics and Business at the UOC, highlights the importance of budget planning. "For planning it doesn't matter if you want to pay in cash or by digital means," she says. Calculate how much can be spent to try to get 40%-50% of income to go to housing expenses, supermarket purchases or bills and a third to housing. With the rest there would be some margin to save or train.
"It's a good idea to pull cash, but it depends on the person... If you go pulling money out of control, it's not effective." The key is anticipation and awareness, he insists, also with closed lists before going shopping, comparing prices and taking advantage of discounts. On what form of payment is preferable, he defends that card spending today offers instant tracking of expenses – through bank applications – and how they have been made, something that can be lost in the sea of tickets "what you have to save" when paying in cash if you want to control the disbursement.
Currently, payment in cash to a businessperson or professional –such as when making a purchase– is limited to 1,000 euros, so not everything can be done by pulling bills. Here Rupérez rejects the bad image that payment in cash can give, traditionally related to cases of wanting to circumvent the control of the treasury. "There is cash fraud, but most of it occurs digitally, it does not correspond to reality," he launches, asking to raise the limitations to 2,500 euros.
