article_snippet: It started as an easy way to pay to park a car when you ran out of coins, or a strategy to avoid long queues as bus drivers desperately searched for change. .
article_snippet: But now the system of paying to park using your mobile phone, follow the trend of using passes instead of cash on buses, could be the latest sign that Britain is moving towards a cashless system.
article_snippet: Britain appears to be moving towards a cashless society with payments by card and mobile phone predicted to outstrip those made using coins and notes for the first time this year, as Brighton becomes the latest authority to use the method as the method announced the method would be scrapping coin-operated parking meters .
article_snippet: The council, which estimates the method will save £250,000 from the move according to the Observer, is the latest to implement the cashless way to pay.
article_snippet: This is already used on buses across the country where cash is no longer accepted, and particularly in London, as well as in a number of work canteens that operate card-only systems of payment.
article_snippet: The popularity of non-cash payments has also been seen on the streets with an unemployed man travelling to Mayfair armed with a card machine so people can give an unemployed man travelling to Mayfair armed with a card machine money using money cards.
article_snippet: Britain is on track to make more non-cash payments - defined as paying by card, cheque, direct debit, standing order and mobile phone - than cash for the first time in 2015, according to predictions by the Payments Council.
article_snippet: The growth in online shopping and the rise of new, innovative ways to pay have led to consumers turning to a growing range of payment options in recent years.
article_snippet: About three-quarters of Britons now shop online, compared with just over half in 2008, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures released last year.
article_snippet: The move by Brighton and Hove Council follows similar methods such as only accepting payments by card and oyster card on buses in London (left) as well as the launch of the Barclays pingit app (right)
article_snippet: Contactless payments have also had a significant boost in the last year, with £2.32 billion spent using the method in 2014.
article_snippet: Contactless payments can be used on transactions worth up to £20, and the limit is due to be increased to £30.
article_snippet: And in another move towards getting rid of cash, Barclaycard has launched a 'ping-it' app where people can make payments in a similar way to sending a text message.
article_snippet: The bank also revealed The bank is developing pairs of contactless 'tap and pay'  gloves, which people can use by swiping the back of people hand on the reader at the till, in a similar way to making contactless card payments.
article_snippet: Richard Koch, head of policy at the UK Cards Association, said: 'Instead of having pockets full of coins or carrying wads of notes, people are increasingly choosing people cards instead. '
article_snippet: Three in every four pounds spent in British shops is now paid with cards and we're all using cards for smaller purchases too. '
article_snippet: It's the rise in convenient contactless payments for lower sums and smaller transactions online which in particular are changing the way we choose to pay.'
article_snippet: Mark Bowerman, a spokesman for the Payments Council, said cash is still a vital payment method for many consumers, with students, people who need to tightly control many consumers budgets, older people and people with a disability being particularly high users of cash.
article_snippet: Cash is widely used for day-to-day purchases by virtually everyone and for some people (around 3.5 million) cash is the only method that is used.'
highlights_snippet: The authority is latest to follow growing trend for cashless payments .
  
highlights_snippet: Buses across country no longer accept cash, while canteens want cards .
  