Europa Regionum

A growing number of countries are introducing far-reaching legal restrictions concerning the use of cash and are stimulating the development of cashless transactions. The tendency towards the gradual replacement of cash by electronic payments is observed all over the world, but in many countries, including Poland, cash is still most often used in retail payments. The purpose of the paper is to identify the attitudes of Poles towards cash and their propensity to reduce cash usage in retail payments. Results of the research conducted so far among Polish households show that cash still remains the most frequently used form of payment in retail transactions, especially in low-value ones. In general, people living in villages, elderly people, less educated, with low incomes and non-working persons (unemployed, retired, students, etc.) pay in cash more frequently. Using cash in retail transactions is often just a custom which could hamper payment habits’ change among Polish households. Findings presented in the paper show that despite the relatively large openness of Poles to payment innovations, they are still not ready to resign from cash payments. High assessment of attributes of cash (which was recognized as the cheapest and the easiest to use form of payment) in comparison with instruments of non-cash payments, both traditional and innovative may be the reason for this.