Bank Cards Usage by Russian Students: a Step Forward or a Fading Reality?

The rise in non-cash payments sets the grounds for the world to abandon the use of cash in the near future. Bank cards are increasingly replacing cash is. The advantage of bank cards of various types has already been proven. A debit card allows its holder to keep control of spending, while a credit card expands financial opportunities and reduces the “pain of paying”. The process of switching to cashless payments varies from country to country. The peculiarities of this process in Russia have not been covered enough in the scientific literature. This determines the relevance of the study, the purpose which is to examine the behavioural habits of the younger generation of Russians to make payments. The CAWI method was used to obtain empirical results on the use of cash and non-cash payments by Moscow university students and to analyse their views on the possible withdrawal of cash from circulation. The findings show that young people under the age of 25 prefer to make non-cash payments. They are more likely to use debit cards for regular small payments in order to maintain psychological control over their expenditure. At the same time, they prefer to replace plastic bank cards as physical media with apps on their smartphones. If the necessary technical conditions for cashless payment are created, more than 40% of respondents are ready to stop using cash today. But at the moment they are forced to use cash for payments to small businesses and individuals. 70% of students believe that the complete transition to cashless payment is highly likely in the next 20 years. At the same time, almost 10% of young people use cash on a regular basis and claim that the global economy will not be able to abnegate it in the next 20 years.