Survey: Majority of Brits believe the end of cash is near

Cash, the reason ATMs exist, could disappear in 20 years, according to the majority of British residents who participated in a survey sponsored MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, a United Kingdom-based website that offers discount coupons.

Fifty-two percent of survey participants said [bank] notes and coins could vanish by 2030, according to the poll, which was published earlier this month. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they never carried cash, and 47 percent said they felt safer without it. Eighty-two percent said it was easier to carry a card for purchases.

Only 14 percent of poll participants said they preferred paying with cash, and 15 percent said they did not think about it very much.

"I think it is quite possible that notes and coins could be obsolete within the next twenty years, as debit cards were only introduced in the mid-70s and since then paying by plastic has drastically increased in popularity," Farhad Farhadi, personal finance expert at MyVoucherCodes, said in a statement. "I wouldn't rule out the idea that in a couple of decades' time, we won't use cash anymore."

Farhadi compared the possible fate of cash to checks, which are being phased out in Britain after 300 years. The UK Payments Council, which sets Britain's payments strategy, voted in December to phase out check clearing by 2018 for more efficient forms of electronic payments. The council's members are Britain's largest banks.

MyVoucherCodes polled 1,938 residents for its survey.