Nowadays, developing a cashless society is the common aim of most countries. This study answers a crucial but mostly neglected question regarding determinants of debit cardholders’ intention to withdraw cash. Upon the adaption of transaction cost economics theory, this study examines cash withdrawal as a switching decision from using a debit card with money transferring services provided by banks to withdraw and use cash for payment transactions on one’s own. This study used both in-depth interview and qualitative method to develop measurement scales and hypotheses and quantitative survey on 379 Vietnamese debit cardholders to assess the model. The results indicated that cash withdrawal can be significantly discouraged by reducing perceived adaptation costs related to debit card usage and enhancing the perceived usefulness of debit cards. The study findings not only suggest valuable practical implication for banks and policymakers in heavily cash-based countries but also open up a new research stream regarding the switching decision between different governance modes as an expansion of transaction cost economics theory.
