Minister calls for France to become 'cashless society'

Local France

23-05-2025

In a
hearing before the Senate
, justice minister Gérald Darmanin said that he proposed
"le fin de l'argent liquide"
- the end of cash - as the best method to tackle crime, specially drug dealing.
He added: "A large proportion of fraud in everyday crime, even by criminal networks, is cash fraud".
In recent years there are some European countries - such as Sweden - that have moved to a largely cashless society, albeit not necessarily in order to tackle crime.
While cashless payments are becoming more common in France as more and more businesses take card payments or contactless card/phone payments, the country still uses plenty of cash.
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It's rare for a business to not accept cash at all, although it does happen sometimes, most commonly at temporary stalls at markets or festivals or at pop-up businesses.
During the pandemic France raised the limit for contactless payments to €50 to allow more contactless payments to take place.
The year 2024 marked the first time that more card payments than cash payments happened in France. A survey conducted by Banque de France found that the card payments were the most popular means of payment with 62 percent of people saying this is their preferred method, well ahead of cash with 14 percent.
However 60 percent of those surveyed said they believe it is important to have an option for cash payments - survey respondents said that cash payments allow anonymity (40 percent), enable immediate payment (37 percent) and better management of spending (31 percent).
What are your experiences of cash payments in France? Do you find that businesses are more likely to welcome cash or cards? Please share your experiences in the comment section below