As the cost of living rises and every pound has to punch above its weight, the way we pay has never felt more loaded. With cash quietly exiting stage left and digital payments taking centre stage, our relationship with money is changing, not just on our bank apps, but in the metaphors we reach for to make sense of it all.
In our ‘Think Forward Initiative’ research, we went beyond the tap-and-go surface to explore the stories and symbols people use to navigate this new terrain. Because when life gets financially tight, even the simplest tools can stir up very real feelings about control, safety and uncertainty.
And sometimes, those stories show up in unexpected places.
One participant chose a photo of Stormzy to represent cashless payments, explaining:“Apple Pay is kinda on-trend… fashionable. People who have all the latest stuff seem to be using it. Stormzy’s like that too, respected, a good all-rounder. He hasn’t done anyone wrong. Apple Pay is a bit like that, you don’t hear bad things about it.”
It’s a perfect illustration of what we found:
Digital payments aren’t just technology, they’re culture, identity, reassurance and risk, all tangled together.
Cashless payments should feel like a warm blanket: fraud protection, emergency credit, help only a click away. But for many, that blanket feels more like a tightrope. One hacked account, one frozen app, and suddenly the whole thing wobbles.
When everything becomes contactless, money takes on a strange texture—no weight, no friction, just numbers gliding past. People describe it as feeling like “monopoly money”, something with Teflon on it. In a cost-of-living crunch, that abstraction stops being convenient and starts being unsettling.
Behavioural economists have written about this for decades. Studies on the “pain of paying” show that handing over physical cash makes spending feel real and digital payments remove that moment of pause. We heard that, too.
Digital payments make the day flow, shorter queues, no rummaging, no faff. But that speed steals the micro-moment in which we decide whether we really need the thing we’re about to buy. In financially pressured times, that moment matters more than ever.
Tech promises frictionless ease… until it doesn’t. A blocked card, a random double charge, a login that won’t load, each one a reminder that control can be as thin as your phone battery at 1%. And when every transaction counts, that illusion cracks quickly.
Credit scores, hidden eligibility criteria, algorithms quietly judging us, the financial system can feel like a game whose rules are written in six-point font. In a cost-of-living crisis, that sense of powerlessness only amplifies.
In uncertain times, our emotional relationship with money becomes sharper, not softer. Tightropes, slippery surfaces, games we didn’t sign up to play, these aren’t just metaphors. They shape behaviour, choices and coping strategies.
We’re not just describing payment trends, we’re revealing the stories beneath the stats, the cultural cues (like choosing Stormzy as the face of Apple Pay), the emotional logic shaping how people survive a cashless world in a cost-of-living crisis.
Understanding these stories helps us design financial products, policies and communication that meet people where they actually are, not where we assume they should be. It’s not only about making payments easy; it’s about giving people back a sense of calm, clarity and confidence when they need it most.
At Truth be Gold, we believe the real truths, the ones that actually change behaviour, sit beyond the obvious. In the metaphors, emotions and human stories we live by.
Because the future of money might be digital, but the experience of it will always be deeply, stubbornly human. You can read the full technical research challenge report for the Think Forward Initiative here:
