Are all mobile payments used in China?

In China, as early as around 2018, young people no longer use cash, and mobile payments have completely replaced it. It is no exaggeration to say that except for the use of cash for giving red envelopes during the Spring Festival, cash is not used in life for a year.

Which groups use cash?

In China, the use of cash is mainly in rural areas and the elderly. In particular, the elderly in counties rely heavily on cash. According to a sample survey, the proportion of elderly people who often use cash exceeds 75%. Among them, the proportion of elderly people in counties who often use cash is 80.4%, and the proportion of elderly people in urban areas who often use cash is 67.6%.

Refusing to accept cash will be punished

The reduction in cash usage has led to a very strange phenomenon. Some companies will refuse to accept cash because cash will bring additional management costs to the company. For example, paying tuition fees at school and paying water and electricity bills at home are all mobile payments.

As China's legal currency, refusing to accept cash will be subject to administrative penalties. For example, in October 2024, the People's Bank of China organized commercial banks to carry out a six-month special rectification work on refusing to accept cash.

News case: Cash was rejected three times in one day

Ms. Zhang prepared cash payment for her mother's discharge from the hospital, but she didn't expect the staff to remind her that cash could not be used. Seeing that the line to pay was very long, she paid with her mobile phone.

Then she encountered a similar situation. When Ms. Zhang came out of the community to pay the parking fee, the security guard asked her to use Alipay instead of cash. When she went to a street shop to buy something, the owner did not accept cash.

In one day, she encountered three rejections of cash. According to Article 3 of the "Regulations on the Administration of Renminbi of the People's Republic of China": The legal currency of the People's Republic of China is the Renminbi. No unit or individual may refuse to accept the payment of all public and private debts within the territory of the People's Republic of China in Renminbi.