Bundesbank: Cash or card

What is faster at the supermarket checkout – pay by card or Cash? This question has already caused a lot of discussion: While some think that nothing slows down the line at the checkout more than older people rummaging in their wallets for coins, others say: Before a card payer has typed in their PIN, they already have twice the cash paid. Studies have also come to different conclusions.

Until the cash drawer is closed again

the Federal Bank has now, together with the Forsa Institute, examined 10,000 payment transactions in various parts of retail and recorded the time from naming the purchase amount to issuing the receipt or closing the cash drawer.

The quickest was paying with a smartphone or smartwatch (14 seconds), ahead of contactless card payment without PIN number (15.2 seconds), cash payment (18.7 seconds), contactless card payment with PIN number (23.3 seconds) and card payment with insertion (25.7 seconds).

Differences in pace depending on the amount

However, the study differs. The Bundesbank writes that the payment times are average values. The payment speeds depend above all on factors such as the amount to be paid: the higher it is, the longer it takes to pay. This applies in particular to cash payments. While smaller amounts are often paid particularly quickly in cash, a larger payment amount takes more time.

Payments with cash for amounts under 10 euros take an average of 15.2 seconds, while payments for amounts over 100 euros take more than twice as long on average (32.9 seconds).

The Bundesbank believes that smaller amounts may be paid more frequently. In addition, banknotes from 50 euros should be checked more intensively for authenticity. In the case of payments by card, smartphone or smartwatch, the differences between low and high payment amounts are less significant because the technical processing of the payment process for cashless payments usually does not depend on the amount.

Irrespective of the means of payment, the payment process probably lasts longer for higher payment amounts because more goods are bought and the payment process is then interrupted more frequently by the packing of goods.