In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 63% of the residents consider it very or fairly positive if their country adopts a cashless society. This is an interesting result from YouGov’s survey intended to understand UAE’s payment method preference nationwide.

  • UAE residents prefer to pay using their credit cards and debit cards.
  • About 80% of residents said it is accessible to withdraw cash from ATM machines.
  • 12% more men prefer to go cashless than women.

The survey was fielded online using the YouGov panel to 1000 respondents in the UAE from July 6th and 13th of 2020. The study presented valuable insights extracted from the YouGov Omnibus data that features answers from the UAE’s overall adult national population.

Electronic payment is higher for the high-income households who are earning value above 25,000 monthly at 76%. Also, men are more likely than women to have this preference (67% vs. 55%).

Also Read: UAE Residents Turns to Cooking and Digital Media During Lockdown

Since the COVID-19 pandemic occurrence, UAE residents have started to prefer going cashless, with 52% admitted to having paid through other methods aside cash since the outbreak. This was according to respondents under the salary bracket of 10,000 to 20,000 AED.

Coronavirus outbreak Residents income
Coronavirus outbreak Residents income

While shopping in physical stores, residents admit that it is their first choice to make payments using their credit or debit cards (79%) over cash (56%) or digital methods like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and other fintech applications (58%). Contactless payment, either through cards (86%) or digital wallets (69%) was seen as more important to high-income residents with households earning more than 25,000 AED.

Source: YouGov
Source: YouGov

However, the rising demand to use cashless payment services was not brought about by unavailability of cash notes. The supply of paper money was not an issue; it was not adversely affected by the COVID-19 crisis in the UAE. About 85% of residents state that they find it easy to withdraw cash from free ATM machines. While 68% saying they access as well to ATM that charges a fee for a transaction.