OREANDA-NEWS  In January, a kind of record was set for the use of plastic cards to pay for goods and services. For the first time, the share of non-cash payment of purchases increased to 50%. Such figures lead one of the largest operators of cash registers "Taxco" on the basis of analysis of the 11 billion checks.

To such indicators were more than a year, in 2017, "plastic" preferred to pay 40% of Russians, by December 2018 their share increased to 46%. The beginning of 2019 has led to a record – exactly half of all purchases are made without the participation of "live" money.

Consumers are very active began to use plastic cards despite the fact that their total number has decreased. Experts say that this is the first sign that the economy is becoming more transparent, because it is much more difficult to follow the movement of paper money.

There are leading regions where plastic is especially in use - Moscow, Tyumen, Ufa, St. Petersburg, Perm, Kazan and Krasnoyarsk. But in Togliatti, Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod and Volgograd are especially tied to cash turnover.

In General statistics, most cards are paid for gasoline, alcohol, medicines and food. The largest growth was recorded in the service and hospitality sector – from 52 to 54%.

Experts predict that in the next three years the share of Russians who prefer cashless payments will grow to 65-70%. This will affect most areas, but there are those who do not want to move to virtual money – a restaurant business. Often in institutions do not accept cards to pay in peak hours — Friday evening or on weekends. Construction and small business are also connected with cash, the Izvestia newspaper writes.