12. 06. 12. - 16:58
Austrians mainly use cash to pay
A new study has shown that Austrian's favourite method of spending remains cash, while credit cards or bank cards are used on average about four times a month.
That puts the Austrian consumers roughly in the middle ground. In Sweden, Finland and Denmark the cards are used roughly 3 times as much as in Austria.
The study was released by the consultancy Capgemini which added: "One of the main reasons that people here still prefer cash is that it is reasonably easy to get hold of. In other countries getting money often comes with high charges."
They added that when Austrians did use the card it was mostly simply to get cash rather than pay directly.
When questioned most Austrian said it was simply convenient and it was what they were used to.
When it comes to dealing with the smaller amounts under €10 Austrians almost always paid in cash and in addition the use of money as opposed the cards was far more common among older consumers.
But the study also found that about 85% of Austrians over 15 used the opportunity for non-money payment systems such as payments by the Internet. That translated into anything up to €50 being paid for by bank card and amounts over that generally being settled by credit card.
The payment system NFC - "Near Field Communication" was reportedly almost non-existent in Austria and in addition payments using mobile telephones were also only accounting for a very small part of the total trade.
