Paying somebody in the UK

Online payments are much easier and safer for a number of reasons. They cannot be stolen en route, everything happens instantly, there are immediate transaction records which protect both you and whoever you're paying, and often times they're not affected by borders, and of course there's the lack of counterfeits. If I can, I do almost everything electronically. Cash of course has its role, but PayPal and other such means are usually the way to go.

the downside to electronic currency is that a hacker or identity thief gets ahold of the account (which can happen) you're entirely screwed...

Happened to me a year or two back. I purchased something on-line, from a trusted and very reputable outlet, and then my bank account was emptied!
It was more than coincidence, I think, that my Bank were the people installing a new purchasing system at the outlet at the time, and a delivery address used for one of the fraudulent transactions, via China, just happened to be in the same city as the Bank's systems base!
It took over a month to sort things out, changing debit cards, passwords etc, and getting my money back!

Sorry to hear that happened to you, Terry!

I don't really trust electronic transactions, because as secure as they may be, the security was created by humans and therefore can be defeated by humans.

I usually rely mostly on cash transactions. If something does go wrong, it will end up being a small cost compared to having an account drained and perhaps a bad credit mark (until it's corrected eventually)