Mobile Payments on the Rise, Cash Continues to Decrease: Visa Report Highlights Payments Shift in UAE

Across the UAE, payment habits continue to rapidly evolve, with more consumers embracing faster, more secure digital experiences. Visa’s third edition of its ‘Where Cash Hides’ report¹ shows 68% of UAE consumers are largely non-cash users, making most of their payments with payments cards or mobile devices. This is an increase of 7% compared with last year, highlighting a clear move away from relying on cash.

Digital Payments Break into Cash-Heavy Categories

The appeal of cash is also decreasing in day-to-day purchases. Only 16% of UAE consumers surveyed use cash for everyday purchases, down from 25% last year. This downward trend is visible across all major categories where cash remains popular, including local markets (-19%), taxi journeys (-18%), and bills (-12%).

For everyday spending such as groceries, eating out and transport, debit cards and mobile payments are the payment method of choice, with credit cards more commonly used for planned or higher-value purchases. In making payments to another person (or peer-to-peer (P2P) payments), tips are still paid in cash by 58% of UAE consumers, the most common remaining cash use. Cash is also widely used for international money transfers through exchange houses (25%) and for property rent payments (15%). Despite this, digital adoption in peer-to-peer payments continues to rise with digital payments increasing by 5 percentage points this year, reaching 35%.

“This year’s findings highlight a clear shift in consumer spending habits, with digital payments continuing to gain ground across everyday transactions,” said Salima Gutieva, Visa’s VP and Country Manager for the UAE. “While cash remains present in certain categories, these areas represent meaningful opportunities to help consumers transition toward digital options that offer greater security, convenience, and ease of management. When payment experiences meet these expectations, adoption follows naturally.”

The findings of Visa’s Where Cash Hides research suggest UAE consumers’ growing reliance on digital payments because they are more convenient, secure and rewarding. Compared to cash, debit and credit cards offer consumers greater security, convenience, and transparency. They eliminate the risks of carrying physical money, enable seamless online and in-store purchases, and provide instant transaction records for better budgeting. Mobile payments offer enhanced convenience and security through tokenization, which replaces sensitive card details with unique digital identifiers so the actual card number is never shared.

Credit cards also come with rewards programs, cashback offers, and travel or lifestyle benefits, value benefits that consumers have come to expect when they spend at home or travel abroad.