The drive for a cashless society - your thoughts
Discussion
What are your views on a cashless society?
I've read some interesting articles about this - Sweden is leading the way.
- Cashless is convenient for most people - just 2% of the value of all transactions were in cash and falling.
- Vendors don't want cash - it needs physically moving around and is a security risk
- Banks don't want to produce cash - it's expensive
- But, electronic fraud has more than doubled in the past decade
- Is having every single payment recorded not a threat to privacy? How do we know our bank may not sell our spend profiles to commercial business who also want to sell us stuff?
But ignoring the practical stuff for now, it seems to me the heart of this runs along a more emotional axis of personal choice / control / institutional trust.
Cash empowers its users. You do not have to be dependent on any financial institution, you can stay outside the financial system if you like, you can be digitally anonymous to whatever degree you choose.
Most of us love the ease of digital payments in everyday life - but how would you feel if you woke up in a totally cashless society?
I've read some interesting articles about this - Sweden is leading the way.
- Cashless is convenient for most people - just 2% of the value of all transactions were in cash and falling.
- Vendors don't want cash - it needs physically moving around and is a security risk
- Banks don't want to produce cash - it's expensive
- But, electronic fraud has more than doubled in the past decade
- Is having every single payment recorded not a threat to privacy? How do we know our bank may not sell our spend profiles to commercial business who also want to sell us stuff?
But ignoring the practical stuff for now, it seems to me the heart of this runs along a more emotional axis of personal choice / control / institutional trust.
Cash empowers its users. You do not have to be dependent on any financial institution, you can stay outside the financial system if you like, you can be digitally anonymous to whatever degree you choose.
Most of us love the ease of digital payments in everyday life - but how would you feel if you woke up in a totally cashless society?
grumpy52 said:
Many small businesses in my area don't take cards .
It's quite expensive to operate the card payment system for small businesses.
On average it's 30p per transaction. That doesn't sound much, but a small corner shop would be looking at bank charges of a few hundred pounds per quarter.It's quite expensive to operate the card payment system for small businesses.
Just a matter of time before cash is no longer used.
Small businesses may suffer but if there were no transaction charges I think cards would be used at even the likes of corner shops where payments may even be £1.
Parents could top up there children's moneycard online in the matter of minutes online.
Technology however isn't 100% reliable, so if card machines do go out of order how else would things be paid for if cash was no longer around?
Small businesses may suffer but if there were no transaction charges I think cards would be used at even the likes of corner shops where payments may even be £1.
Parents could top up there children's moneycard online in the matter of minutes online.
Technology however isn't 100% reliable, so if card machines do go out of order how else would things be paid for if cash was no longer around?
nicanary said:
Cash certainly "empowers" Chinese takeaway shops. They'd have to close if you all used cards.......
Maybe it's a big-city thing but if I ever get takeaway these days it's invariably via JustEat or similar and therefore paid for by debit card. Even the smallest fried chicken joint round here is signed up with them. The advantages of being cashless are at least as true for takeaways as for other businesses, maybe actually more so if you've previously had your delivery drivers having to collect payment, dispense change etc with all the pitfalls I can imagine and doubtless a load I haven't thought of associated with that. Matt UK said:
What are your views on a cashless society?
- Banks don't want to produce cash - it's expensive
I read a while back about a note made from a form of plastic as opposed to the 'fabric' that they are today. A lot of cost of currency production is just replacement of worn out notes.- Banks don't want to produce cash - it's expensive
Plastic ones do cost more to produce, but last substantially longer and are more resistant to fraud. introduction of 'plastic' notes would reduce the cost of currency production.
To answer you initial question, I don't think we will ever be truly cashless, but the % of cash transactions will be reduced.
How long till we see a beggar with a PDQ machine??
Matt UK said:
- Is having every single payment recorded not a threat to privacy? How do we know our bank may not sell our spend profiles to commercial business who also want to sell us stuff?
But ignoring the practical stuff for now, it seems to me the heart of this runs along a more emotional axis of personal choice / control / institutional trust.
Cash empowers its users. You do not have to be dependent on any financial institution, you can stay outside the financial system if you like, you can be digitally anonymous to whatever degree you choose.
Those are my concerns in a nutshell. Very much against the idea here. Some people will undoubtedly start posting jpegs of tinfoil but all it would take is for your details to be hacked or fall in to the wrong hands and you would have no way of being able to survive/live without resorting to illegal methods. I very much like the freedom and anonymity of cash transactions. I find it's generally the younger generation that are all for a cashless society, too, which isn't surprising.But ignoring the practical stuff for now, it seems to me the heart of this runs along a more emotional axis of personal choice / control / institutional trust.
Cash empowers its users. You do not have to be dependent on any financial institution, you can stay outside the financial system if you like, you can be digitally anonymous to whatever degree you choose.
I dont know exactly how fraud recovery works, but my theory is this:
Bank customer sates transaction X is fraud, they sign a statement to confirm so.
Bank refund customer and claim on their 'fraud insurance' to recover costs. Details are passed to a Fraud department who dont show any interest as money has been recovered.
Fraud insurance is paid for by the banks Micro transactions fees, charged on cashless transactions.
So it is on no concern to the bank if there is Fraud or not, just that they are not out of pocket from it.
- This is just my view on it, having had been a victim once and how easy it was to recover the lost funds and how willing the bank were to refund me (same day!)
Bank customer sates transaction X is fraud, they sign a statement to confirm so.
Bank refund customer and claim on their 'fraud insurance' to recover costs. Details are passed to a Fraud department who dont show any interest as money has been recovered.
Fraud insurance is paid for by the banks Micro transactions fees, charged on cashless transactions.
So it is on no concern to the bank if there is Fraud or not, just that they are not out of pocket from it.
- This is just my view on it, having had been a victim once and how easy it was to recover the lost funds and how willing the bank were to refund me (same day!)
Since my bank finally issued me contactless cards last year, I hardly carry cash. I used to withdraw £200 per week to cover day to day spending. Now I probably withdraw £100 a fortnight. My wife hasn't really switched over yet, so she still draws a lot of cash. We spent the long weekend in Majorca and didn't spend any cash at all. Everything was on card, even at the isolated fish restaurant in Deia from the Night Manager.
I hate carrying coins around.
I hate carrying coins around.
Had a night out last month (a rare occurrence with 2 young children). Taxi into town was the only cash transaction. Debit card for dinner, contactless for drinks, Uber to get home. It was nice not ending the evening with £30 of change in my pocket.
I like the flexibility of cash, but the convenience of cashless. I think the balance we have now is about right.
I like the flexibility of cash, but the convenience of cashless. I think the balance we have now is about right.
callmedave said:
How long till we see a beggar with a PDQ machine??
Minus quite a while ... hurrah a Daily Wail linkBut what about buying some weed from dodgy Dave down the pub 
To be honest I hardly ever use cash now. I got £50 out a few weeks back and still have most of it in my wallet. The last bastion of cash used to be going out to the pub, which I don't do anymore due to kids, but even a lot of those now seem to have contactless terminals on the bar. Even small purchases from the corner shop (a Co-Op) at the end of my road I do with a card though part of this is because I get 1% of my spending back as it's a cashback card. So for me I'd happily go cashless.
It's right about Chineses though, how come hardly any take cards, the Indian I use does and even the chippy does.
To be honest I hardly ever use cash now. I got £50 out a few weeks back and still have most of it in my wallet. The last bastion of cash used to be going out to the pub, which I don't do anymore due to kids, but even a lot of those now seem to have contactless terminals on the bar. Even small purchases from the corner shop (a Co-Op) at the end of my road I do with a card though part of this is because I get 1% of my spending back as it's a cashback card. So for me I'd happily go cashless.
It's right about Chineses though, how come hardly any take cards, the Indian I use does and even the chippy does.
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