Saudi Arabia Moving Towards Digital Payments, Yet 22% of Consumer Transactions Still in Cash: Visa’s Latest ‘Where Cash Hides’ Research

  • Research reveals motivators for cash usage and highlights opportunities to drive financial inclusion and enhance payment experience for consumers and businesses in Saudi Arabia
  • Cash usage remains common in peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions including tips and money exchanges between friends and family, and everyday spending 
  • Visa’s Ali Bailoun: Despite progress with Saudi Arabia’s digital transformation, opportunity remains to further digitize commerce in the Kingdom

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 27 January, 2025: While Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of digital payments, around a quarter (22%) of transactions of consumers surveyed are still in cash, according to the second edition of Visa’s ‘Where Cash Hides’ research.

The research, based on a survey of 2,800 individuals across GCC, examined the overall frequency of and motivations for cash usage. It identifies cash-heavy categories and proposes easier, more secure digital payment solutions for both consumers and local businesses. The first edition of Where Cash Hides was conducted in 2023. 
 

Key survey findings

Cash in specific transactions (by % of consumers surveyed): 

In KSA, P2P transactions (24% vs 33% in 2023) and everyday spending (26% vs 29% in 2023) form a large portion of cash usage. 

  • Within the P2P segment, tips (37% vs 45%) and money exchanges between friends and family (26% vs 36%) are the prime areas where surveyed KSA consumers use cash. International transfers through exchange houses (7% vs 16%) and rent (25% vs 34%) saw the most significant declines from 2023, indicating progress in digitizing payments in those categories.
  • For everyday spending, offline taxi (40% vs 47%), farmers markets (36% vs 40%) and restaurants (21% vs 23%) are where most consumers surveyed said they use cash. 

Motivators for cash usage (by % of consumers surveyed): 

  • The top reasons respondents prefer cash for P2P are convenience and speed (23% for both) and for everyday spends easier budget management (25%) and acceptance (23%).  

Implications and solutions:

  • Efforts to introduce convenient and secure solutions such as Visa Direct (P2P, tips and other disbursements, and remittances), Click to Pay (better online checkout experience), and Tap to Phone (low-cost acceptance solution for SMBs, freelancers and taxi) will further drive digital payments and increase card acceptance in the categories identified.
  • Encouraging mobile and contactless payments also presents a pathway to increasing digital payments usage for everyday expenses. This requires education on acceptance and security of digital payments for both banked and unbanked populations.

Ali Bailoun, Visa’s Regional General Manager for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, commented, “Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of digital commerce and Visa will continue to support the Saudi government’s Vision 2030 cashless agenda to reinforce the Kingdom’s leadership in digital payments.  However, 22% of consumer transactions are still in cash.  For Visa, this represents an opportunity to drive financial inclusion and further digitize commerce for a better payment experience for everyone, everywhere in the Kingdom. Our second edition of Visa’s Where Cash Hides research pinpoints precisely where and how Visa, together with our partners, can help grow the digital economy."

Despite cash usage, consumers’ overall reliance on cash continues to remain low.  For 63% of respondents, only 1-2 out of their last 10 transactions were in cash. Only 3% of respondents claimed that all (10 out of last 10) transactions were made with cash.   

For more information and details on the ‘Where Cash Hides’ Survey click here.