Effects of COVID-19 on payment method preferences of Poles

Repeated payments create a certain habit in terms of the preferred payment method. Its formation stems from the simultaneous effect of a variety of factors, while its persistent character implies a difficulty in its change. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the terms of how society functions, thus affecting multiple spheres of people’s lives, including making purchases and payments. The aim of this paper is to identify and present the multidimensional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on payment method preferences of people in Poland. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated the shrinkage of cash exchanges while at the same time made the tendency to use cashless payment methods grow. Cash payments are a path for viral transmissions and, thus, a potential source of infection and viewing them as an unsafe payment method effected the turn to cashless forms of payment. It is important to note that this fact constitutes one of the most vital factors of the dynamic growth of the BLIK payment system - a multi-institutional cashless payment system, working independently of the present card-based systems in Poland. Based on the conducted study it can be stated that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed payment method preferences of the people in Poland, yet the permanence of those changes will only be possible to determine in a larger timeframe.