Ljubljana - Payment cards are becoming increasingly popular in Slovenia, and debit cards remain the most popular payment method since 2018. Meanwhile, despite seeing an increase, mobile payments have not yet reached the popularity of cards, according to the latest Masterindex survey commissioned by Mastercard.

Debit cards are used regularly by 48% of Slovenians aged between 18 and 55, and their popularity has been increasing - from 77% last year to 82% this year. Meanwhile, cash is becoming less and less popular - 22% of respondents use it for everyday purchases, down from 24% last year.

Despite seeing an increase, mobile payments have not yet reached the popularity of cards. Compared to last year, the share of people who have made at least one payment by mobile phone has increased by 9% and it now stands at 48%.

While 46% of Slovenians used a smartphone for online payments last year, this year the share has increased to 53%. Mobile payments have decreased in shops and petrol stations (from 56% to 44%) and in restaurants and bars (from 26% to 19%), which could be attributed to the Covid-19 epidemic.

Statistics show that three quarters of Slovenians (76%) regularly make online payments. The majority (87%) also welcomed this year's legislative innovation in online payment validation, which requires double validation for all online purchases and consequently strengthens consumer security.

"More than half of participants (58%) said that their online shopping was not affected by the epidemic, and 30% said that they were shopping online more often. The number of people who only started to shop online due to the epidemic increased significantly, and 4% of these people are likely to continue this practice," Mastercard explained.

All the statistical data was collected as part of the survey on payment trends and habits in Slovenia. It was conducted by Mediana in June among more than 1,000 individuals using the Computer-Aided Web Interviewing (CAWI) system.