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LIFE IN SPAIN

Is Spain going cashless?

Card payments are on the rise in Spain, but many Spaniards still use cash in their day-to-day life. Scandinavian countries are heading in the digital direction, but could Spain ever go cashless?

Published: 6 October 2022 17:05 CEST
Is Spain going cashless?
Photo: Pixabay.

¿Con tarjeta? is something you asked a lot in Spanish shops and bars, and according to recent statistics, it’s on the up.

Card payments increased by 23.56 percent in Spain during the second quarter of 2022, according to data from the Bank of Spain.

Card payment transactions have been steadily rising in Spain since the start of COVID-19 pandemic because physical money – especially coins – were considered unsanitary.

This is part of the reason why both the rise in the number of card transactions (23.56 percent) and in the amount paid for on card (25.05 percent) have reached record highs.

The number of cards in circulation has also risen by 1.44 percent to 87.9 million, meaning there are almost double the amount of bank cards than there are people in Spain.

In perhaps what might allude to the current cost of living crisis, credit cards have increased by 7.1 percent, and debit cards fallen by 2.95 percent. 

Cash withdrawals also increased by 2.37 percent in the second quarter, with 170.8 million ATM withdrawals across Spain.

Still, that figure is far lower than the pre-pandemic figure, when a staggering 900 million cash withdrawal operations were registered in 2019.

Despite the underlying trend towards digital payment, experts believe the shock of inflation and cost of living crisis could cause a short-term uptick in cash payments in Spain as a means of controlling spending.

According to Helena Tejero, a Director from Banco de España, using cash is “a good way to keep the money that comes out of the wallet at bay” and it could become more common as Spaniards tighten their belts in the face of inflation.

READ ALSO: How Spain’s cost of living increase is worse than in France and Germany

Cash only

Card payments may be on the rise, but for many Spaniards cash is still a daily part of their lives.

According to Banco de España, 64 percent of purchases in Spain are paid for in cash.

Around 1 million people in Spain are, according to a Study of Consumer Payment Attitudes in the EuroZone, living in “financial exclusion” where they can only access cash.

This is most common in rural Spain where many villages and hamlets.

The number of ATMs in Spain has also been falling since 2008. According to the Banco de España, there are now 58.4 percent fewer cash points than in 2008, although Spain is still the country with the second highest proportion of ATMs per person in the EuroZone, with 58 cash points for every 100,000 inhabitants.

READ ALSO: Spanish banks’ ATMs are disappearing or being replaced

Cashless future?

Though card payments are rising in Spain, it is still a long way off countries such as Sweden and Norway, which are all but cash-free societies.

READ ALSO: Reader’s story: How I adapted to Sweden’s cashless society

In Sweden card payments (whether its card or mobile phone) make up more than 90 percent of all transactions in the Scandinavian countries. Next-door in Norway, just 3 percent of purchases are made with cash.

Financial experts point to some of the benefits of transitioning to a cashless society, including a reduction in crime as there is physically less money to steal, but also the creation of a more robust and far-reaching digital paper trail, which makes financial crimes such as money laundering more difficult.

On the other hand, many people feel moving away from cash comes with its downsides. For many bank cards and online banking is a steep technological learning curve, it leaves you with no other option in the case of technical issues and, as the Banco de España suggested, for some people the lack of physical cash can make controlling spending more difficult. 

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SPANISH TRADITIONS

Everything you need to know about Mother’s Day in Spain

Here's how and when in May Mother's Day is celebrated in Spain, and why it owes its roots to religion and a Valencian poet.

Published: 3 May 2024 13:37 CEST
Everything you need to know about Mother's Day in Spain

This year, Mother’s Day (El Día de la Madre) is celebrated in Spain on Sunday May 5th. It’s always celebrated on the first Sunday of the month of May.

On this day, young children in Spain give their mothers manualidades (crafts) they’ve made at school as a token of their love.

Husbands and older sons and daughters may buy their wives/mothers a present to say thanks for all that they do as matriarchs, which usually takes the form of a detalle (smaller present than for a birthday or Christmas), and will come accompanied by a message such as te quiero, mamá (I love you, mum).

According to experiences website Aladinia, the average Spaniards spends €65 on gifts on Mother’s Day. 

Other mums may send out text messages to wish each other ¡Feliz Día de la Madre! (Happy Mother’s Day!).

As it’s always celebrated on a Sunday, many shops will be closed but you can expect plenty of restaurants to be open for lunch and perhaps dinner. 

Depending where you’re from, the first Sunday of May may or may not be when you’re used to celebrating Mother’s Day in your home country.

Around the world over 100 countries celebrate Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday, more on the difference below) – 77 in May, 13 in March, and 14 at other times during the year.

Some countries, like the UK, celebrate Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday during Lent, meaning that the date changes each year. This is because Mothering Sunday was originally a Christian holiday in some European countries.

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

Spain, however, celebrates Mother’s Day on the first Sunday in May each year, meaning that it doesn’t have a fixed date either. But it wasn’t always like that.

The history of Mother’s Day in Spain

The first Mother’s Day in Spain was celebrated in Madrid all the way back on October 4th, 1926. Much of the impetus for establishing a day to celebrate mothers came, rather fittingly, from a poet.

Julio Menéndez García, a Valencian poet and public servant, pushed for a special day to celebrate mothers. Spanish newspaper La Libertad published a short section on Garcìa’s efforts in October 1925:

“A Levantine poet, Julio Menéndez García, has had the happy initiative that in Spain and in the Spanish-speaking nations a day should be consecrated to extol the love of mothers. The establishment of Mother’s Day is something tender and sympathetic, which deserves to be welcomed by governments, the press and public opinion, as it involves the highest tribute to women in their most august representation.”

After the Civil War, the church moved the date to December 8th to coincide with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a key holiday among Catholics. 

Civil War-era poster urging Madrid mothers to leave the Spanish capital with their children before the arrival of Franco’s troops. (Photo by AFP)

But it wasn’t until 1965 that Mother’s Day was celebrated in May in Spain. The reason for this change of date was to separate the celebrations (both were considered important enough to have their own day) but also the influence of other countries, namely the United States.

The campaign for a Mother’s Day was originally started by Anna Jarvis, an American wanting to honour her mother, in 1908. By 1914, US President Woodrow Wilson officially signed it into law, establishing a May date. 

However, for many years in Spain department store El Corte Inglés maintained the date of 8th December, meaning that Spain Mother’s Day was celebrated twice a year for a while, commercially speaking at least.

In 1936 a local council in Breña Baja, on the Canary island of La Palma, became the first in Spain to move Mother’s Day to May.

However, in 1965 the church authorities officially decided to move Mother’s Day to May, a month consecrated to the Virgin Mary. May is also the month of female gods in the classical world, and in Catholicism is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Interestingly, Jarvis herself later campaigned against the day, arguing it had become overly commercialised, something Spaniards often bemoan about other imported American customs like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. 

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

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