Common wisdom in survey methodology is that cash is the most persuasive form of incentive payment. Since the establishment of this guideline, however, the world has become more digital. Restaurants and retailers have started to move away from accepting cash payments, a trend accelerated by the pandemic. Gift cards, especially those issued by online retailers, are often digital. Smart phones allow people to leave their wallets at home and instead use their phones to pay-- either digitally with an app or with a credit card tucked into a card holder stuck to the phone. Given these shifts in how people pay for things, is cash still enticing to all subpopulations?

Data collected from a large nonprobability survey asked about people’s use of cash and their preferred form of incentive payment for $5 and $40. Incentive types offered in the vignette were: cash, digital gift cards, physical gift cards, check, and electronic bank transfer.  A small number of people preferred cash incentives for either amount (5%), with most opting for electronic bank transfers and digital gift cards. The small subpopulation preferring cash was mostly young, low-income, and without a college degree. It seems that cash is no longer king but digital cash (i.e., digital gift cards and bank transfers) now reigns.