• Cash use continued to decline, falling to 15% as consumers shift toward digital payment options

Manama, Bahrain: Across Bahrain, payment habits continue to rapidly evolve, with more consumers embracing faster, more secure digital experiences. Visa’s ‘Where Cash Hides’ report[1] shows 65% of Bahrain consumers are largely non-cash users, making most of their payments with payments cards or mobile devices. This is an increase of 7% compared with last year, highlighting a clear move away from cash.

Digital Payments Break into Cash-Heavy Categories

The appeal of cash is also decreasing in day-to-day purchases. Only 13% of Bahrain consumers surveyed use cash for everyday purchases. The downward trend is visible across major categories where cash remains popular, including petrol stations (-10%) and groceries (-6%).

For everyday spending such as petrol and groceries, debit cards are commonly used for everyday purchases. Mobile wallets now account for almost every second transaction across both offline and online categories, a sharp increase from 16% a year ago. In making payments to another person (or peer-to-peer (P2P) payments), international money transfers through exchange houses are still paid in cash by 50% of Bahrain consumers. Cash is also widely used for public transport (20%), peer-to-peer payments (19%), and local markets (15%).

“Bahrain is seeing clear momentum behind mobile wallets, which are now used across a wide range of everyday transactions. At the same time, peer-to-peer payments remain essential, especially for migrant workers sending money abroad. These insights highlight how important speed, convenience and affordability are in shaping payment choices. As digital options continue to improve, they are increasingly meeting these expectations, making them a natural fit for both daily spending and money transfers,” said Ahmed ElKaffass, Visa’s Country Manager for Bahrain.

The findings of Visa’s Where Cash Hides research suggest Bahrain consumers’ growing reliance on digital payments because they are more convenient, secure and rewarding. Compared to cash, debit and credit cards offer consumers greater security, convenience, and transparency. They eliminate the risks of carrying physical money, enable seamless online and in-store purchases, and provide instant transaction records for better budgeting. Mobile payments offer enhanced convenience and security through tokenization, which replaces sensitive card details with unique digital identifiers so the actual card number is never shared.

Credit cards also come with rewards programs, cashback offers, and travel or lifestyle benefits, value benefits that consumers have come to expect when they spend at home or travel abroad.

About Visa Inc.

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.

[1] The research is based on an online survey of 1,200 individuals across GCC in 2025. The second wave was conducted in 2024.