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Cards preferred Down Under
Cash is no longer king as far as most Australians and South Koreans are concerned as more than eight in 10 pay less often in cash today than they did five years ago, according to a survey released on Monday.
Cash is no longer king as far as most Australians and South Koreans are concerned as more than eight in 10 pay less often in cash today than they did five years ago, according to a survey released on Monday.
In comparison, 69 percent of Americans surveyed use less cash than five years ago, while in Asia the figures were generally lower, with Singapore at 45 percent, said MasterCard Worldwide.
Shuan Ghaidan, MasterCard's Asia Pacific head of product sales and delivery, said one reason for the declining use of cash in Australia was the growing popularity of debit cards, while in South Korea contactless payment on mobile phones had picked up.
Credit cards tended to be used for higher value transactions, he said.
Besides young people, for whom debit cards are usually their first card, he said the debit card is also preferred by some older people "who don't want credit anymore, don't want to fall into debt anymore."
The global economy has been rocked in the past year by a credit crisis stemming from US mortgage loan defaults.
The survey noted that nearly 9 in 10 Australians and New Zealanders said they disliked carrying large amounts of cash, compared to 6 in 10 Singaporeans or 80 percent of Americans.
MasterCard said it conducted 7,000 interviews across 12 countries, including Malaysia, China, South Korea, Canada, Italy, France and Germany.
本周一公布的一项调查显示，对于多数澳大利亚人和韩国人而言，现金已不再是他们的主要支付手段，如今超过80%的人不像五年前那样常用现金支付。
据万事达卡国际组织介绍，美国69%的受访者如今使用现金支付的频率低于五年前；而亚洲的比例总体较低，新加坡的这一比例为45%。
万事达卡亚太区产品销售与递送部总监舒安•盖顿称，借记卡的日益盛行是澳大利亚现金使用率下降的一个原因，而在韩国，非接触手机支付方式也已成新潮流。
他说，人们在进行大宗交易时往往使用信用卡。
借记卡通常是年轻人拥有的第一张卡，但据盖顿介绍，除年轻人外，一些年龄较大的人对借记卡也青睐有加，因为“他们不想再欠债，不想再背上债务。”
在过去一年中，由美国次级房贷问题引发的信贷危机严重影响了全球经济。
该调查显示，近90%的澳大利亚人和新西兰人称自己不喜欢随身携带大量现金，而在新加坡和美国，这一比例分别是60%和80%。
万事达卡国际组织共在全球12个国家开展了7000个访问，其中包括马来西亚、中国、韩国、加拿大、意大利，法国和德国。
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