Barefoot Investor Scott Pape shares stats that prove Australia will become a cashless society - and there's no stopping it

The Barefoot Investor has warned that cash is on its way out as startling new statistics revealed how little it is used by Australians. 

Scott Pape made the startling admission while responding to a single mother-of-three who had written in to him. 

To makes ends meet, Rita explained she became a house cleaner to three wealthy wives and always paid with cash rather than card at the checkout. 

She added she would use her cash to pay for her bills including rent and groceries and claimed it helped her save hundreds of dollars in surcharge fees. 

'I am convinced it not only saved me hundreds of dollars in surcharge fees that you wrote about last week but also helped me keep to a budget during an extremely stressful time of my life,' Rita wrote.  

'To this day (seven years on), I still withdraw my spending money each week in $50 and $20 notes. Life is simple with cash!'

In his reply to Rita, titled 'house cleaner gets her PhD in finance', Mr Pape praised the single mum for figuring out that using cash saved her money. 

Mr Pape referenced a study conducted by the University of Melbourne and the University of Adelaide which analysed data from 11,000 participants and found Aussies were likely to spend more using cashless methods than paying with cash. 

However, he argued the use of cash was on the demise despite it's money saving capabilities.  

'Cash is going the way of Kevin Rudd. (It pops up every so often just to let us know that it’s still relevant, only to fade back into oblivion),' Mr Pape wrote. 

'Cash is now only used for 16 per cent of transactions, and you can bet your shiny ’lil fitty that the Commissioner of Taxation is the main one cheering on its demise.

'After all, the ATO’s supercomputer has so much data on you it would make Mark Zuckerberg drool (and it’s only getting more powerful with artificial intelligence). 

'Yet, for all its computing power, it’s still no match for a single mum with a dustbuster.' 

It comes after Aussies rushed to withdraw cash from ATMs across the country as part of a fight against the rise of digital payments. 

The mass withdrawal event, called 'Cash Out Day', was organised by the Cash Is King Australia Facebook group and took place on June 14.

'Cash out tomorrow June 14th,' the group wrote. 'Bank branch or ATM, get it out, use it don't lose it.'

Many Australians shared photos of themselves withdrawing hundreds of dollars from ATMs. 

Some even reported that the high demand of cash due to the campaign resulted in some ATMs running out of money. 

Finder's head of consumer research, Graham Cooke, told Daily Mail Australia that those who paid with cash can avoid extra card fees.

While some larger businesses absorb these costs into the price of their goods and services, many smaller ones lump customers with the bank fees.

The most popular way to pay with card is tap-and-go, which accounts for 95 per cent of in-person transactions, and is the most expensive.

While inserting a card into an EFTPOS machine typically costs a merchant less than 0.5 per cent per transaction using contactless Visa and Mastercard payment can amount to 0.5 to 1 per cent each time for debit cards and 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent for credit cards.

On a purchase of $100 the average cost added is 28c for EFTPOS, 52c for using the Mastercard network, 47c for using Visa and a whopping $1.88 for digital payment provider Square.