Australia has become a nation of tappers, with official figures showing that the card has finally overtaken cash as our most-frequently-used payment method.

And younger Australians are increasingly choosing to make those transactions on debit cards rather than credit cards.

The share of payments made using a credit or debit card has doubled since 2007, according to a report released by the Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday.

In 2007 nearly 70 per cent of all transactions were made in cash. In 2016 that dropped to just 37 per cent, the report says. Card use grew from 26 per cent to 52 per cent over the same time period. 

The Reserve Bank attributes that to several factors, including the widespread rollout of tap-and-go eftpos functionality. Around one-third of all point-of-sale payments are now made using tap-and-go.

Cards are now the most commonly used payment form for all purchases except those that cost less than $10.

In 2007 just 4 per cent of transactions that cost $10 or less were made on a card. That has spiked to 32 per cent in 2016.

Card transactions have increased by an average of 11 per cent a year since 2007, the Reserve Bank says.

But younger consumers are increasingly choosing debit cards over credit cards. The Reserve Bank's figures show consumers under 30 make four debit-card payments for every credit card payment, up from a two-to-one ratio in 2007.

The average person now has about $40 in their wallet during the week, the report says. That has had a big impact on ATM use, with the proportion of people using an ATM once-a-week or more falling from 86 per cent in 2007 to just 45 per cent in 2016.

The figures are based on a 2016 survey that tracked every payment 1510 Australians made during a week. The Bank conducts the survey every three years.