Published today, the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) Cost of Payment Collection Survey has revealed the major change in the way people shop. Though payment by cash is still favorite of the UK Folks, the same has fallen by 10% as compared to last year.

The fall has resulted in increase in usage of newer methods people are now doing much of the shopping online. These methods of shopping make the use of services called PayPal and debit cards. This caused huge losses to the usage of cash and credit cards.

The survey findings were published on Thursday. It revealed that more than half of the transactions were, however, still carried out by cash. But the number of transactions and money spent by the method had fallen by 6.7% and
9.7% respectively.

For the first time in the history in last 13 years, both measures have observed a decline. The survey covers over 10 billion retail payments in 2012. It suggested that credit and charge card use has reduced by as much as 3.4 %.

At the same, the transactions made on debit cards increased by 3.2%. "Cash is still the most popular way to pay, but our survey shows how rapidly alternative and emerging methods are gaining ground", said Helen Dickinson, the Director General of the British Retail Consortium.