And now, we can safely add mobile wallets into the list.
A shift in payment methods
Yep, it's true: we Malaysians love our cashless payment systems.In fact, a recent survey found that we've been using mobile wallets so much, we're actually number one in the region.
According to the Mastercard Impact Study 2020 quoted by Malay Mail, Malaysia leads other Southeast Asian countries when it comes to e-wallet usage, at 40 per cent.
The Philippines (36 per cent) came in second, while Thailand (27 per cent) came in third.
Surprisingly, the high-tech country of Singapore only came in fourth, with only 26 per cent of their citizens prefer paying with e-wallets.
The survey, which involved more than 10,000 consumers and/or business professionals across 10 markets in the Asia Pacific region, also found that Malaysians adopted pretty well to other digital and cashless payment methods.
26 per cent of Malaysians prefer paying for stuff using contactless debit cards, and 22 per cent of Malaysians prefer using contactless credit cards.
On top of that, the survey found that cash usage among Malaysians declined a whopping 64 per cent since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand also saw a decline in cash usage by 67 per cent, 64 per cent and 59 per cent respectively.
It's safe to say that cash is out, digital payment is in.
Interestingly, the survey also found that the digital activites such as online shopping and usage of digital payments were also higher in comparison to other countries in the region.
Case in point: nearly half of the Malaysian consumers surveyed admitted to shopping more than usual online during the Movement Control Order (MCO), with 64 per cent of them saying that they would continue shopping online in the same frequency as currently or before the pandemic.
Hey, this is a pretty telling sign, don't you think: