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PayPal Predicts the End of the Wallet By 2015

BogenDorpher writes "As new technology emerges, one can safely assume that the days of carrying a wallet will soon end. In fact, PayPal believes that by the year 2015, no one will be carrying a wallet anymore. Instead, mobile payment methods will be taking over."

391 comments

  1. I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The broker for those payments isn't PayPal, what a horrible company.

    1. Re:I hope that.. by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The broker for those payments isn't PayPal, what a horrible company.

      They are idiots, run by the same idiot philosophy which drives eBay - almost no customer service.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:I hope that.. by JDeane · · Score: 3, Informative

      I agree, I have used PayPal exactly 1 time. I honestly wish I had not. At the end of the day it proved to be a $700+ lesson.

      The fraud protection is a fraud...

      I am sure that people use PayPal all day long and never have a problem, but if the party on the other end of the payment is not legit forget about your money, your better off with a credit card at least then you can dispute the charges and get some results.

    3. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      same thing happened to me. their arbitrator sided with the seller who sold counterfeit and defective dvds to me, and whose account had been disabled by ebay. but they sided with the seller. burden of proof was on me to find an industry expert to certify that the dvds i received was actually counterfeit. they just didn't want to return my money because they knew they would not get it from the seller. that's paypal's fraud protection -- to themselves.

    4. Re:I hope that.. by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Sounds a lot like cash or checks to me.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    5. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      L2Read shit before you sign it.

      The fraud protection agreement is great when you fufill your obligations under it.

    6. Re:I hope that.. by iamhassi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "They are idiots, run by the same idiot philosophy which drives eBay - almost no customer service."

      Not true anymore. Call Paypal at 1-888-221-1161 and see how long it takes to get a real-live person on the phone. I've never waited more than a minute. Wish I could say the same about my ISP, gas and electric. Even my credit union takes longer to answer.

      I've had over 4,000 transactions through Paypal in the past 24 months and only 3 issues, none of them so major that I would stop using them. Did have some issues 10 years ago but they're much better now, probably because they've changed how they operate after several lawsuits.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    7. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my experiences with pay pal have been excellent - especially being refunded $2500 for a camera that never appeared. ymmv

    8. Re:I hope that.. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Yep. I'm in the hole to the tune of $3500ish. I guess I didn't learn my lesson the first time as a buyer and it got repeated again as a seller.

      Fuck Fuck Fuck PayPal.

    9. Re:I hope that.. by carlzum · · Score: 1

      I agree, my experience with PayPal support ~2 years ago was very poor. The experience was similar to my futile attempts to reach an actual person for help with google search or Facebook. That level of service may be adequate for "free" services, but not for a company handling financial transactions. PayPal support may be better now, but I'll wait for my trusted credit union to offer mobile payments before I turn to PayPal.

      In my opinion, the death of the wallet will be the death of PayPal and Google Wallet. What value do they offer if banks simply replace debit cards with smart-phone applications?

    10. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, paypal is terrible. When credit cards showed up people talked about the death of cash, then ATM cards showed up and people talked about the death of cash again. Today people paying cash receive a discount on fuel purchases and it does not look like cash will die any time soon, and, even if cash does die the responsibility to identify for various reasons will require a group of some kind of "cards" within some kind of packaging.

      Imagine trying to get a universal information standard for an embedded RFID tag that could carry every membership identification.

    11. Re:I hope that.. by EdgeCreeper · · Score: 1

      I may be naive, but couldn't you dispute the charges paid to paypal with your credit card company, file a police report, and anything else you can think of that paypal is not in control of?

    12. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course the government should control currency.

      Unfortunately, the government, by negligence, has been getting out of the currency business.

    13. Re:I hope that.. by GPLHost-Thomas · · Score: 1

      I don't agree with this *at all*. You may have not looked into the dispute thing of paypal. In fact, it's the buyer which is safe in Paypal, and the seller having all the difficulties when a buyer is doing a claim or dispute. In fact, I'd recommend using paypal for anything unsafe if you are a buyer, and I would recommend all possible care for sellers.

    14. Re:I hope that.. by GPLHost-Thomas · · Score: 1

      My record waiting time to get somebody on the phone with paypal is 56 minutes, and I guess it could be more in some cases.

    15. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fact that they only changed their behavior when sued doesn't alarm you?

      This indicates to me that the company has no ethical substance.

    16. Re:I hope that.. by Reed+Solomon · · Score: 1

      If it's the end of the wallet, it'll be because PayPal pickpocketed everyone.

    17. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fact that they only changed their behavior when sued doesn't alarm you?

      This indicates to me that the company has no ethical substance.

      Think of it as efficient. They used a risky strategy to reduce operational costs. They'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.

    18. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't call people. I can email my ISP, gas company and bank, or I can even go to a branch (as I live in a big city). They respond to emails in 2-3 days.

    19. Re:I hope that.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      The broker for those payments isn't PayPal, what a horrible company.

      Paypal already keeps money deposited in a paypal accounts randomly, they wipe out bank accounts and credit cards randomly, and they threaten people with debt collectors should they not be able to take an amount that makes them happy. Anyone with a paypal account is a potential victim, there have been very many high profile cases.

      Paypal's logical extension is violent crime. Maybe they plan to pay teams of violent muggers to beat down random strangers and take their wallets. By 2015 no one will be carrying a wallet because paypal would have mugged everyone.

    20. Re:I hope that.. by asdf7890 · · Score: 1

      The same with eBay: the buyer is king (unless you are a very large seller, though in eBay's case I can see their business case for it rather than it seeming arbitrary: if buyers start to leave in any significant number prices fall and so does their cut, if sellers leave in any significant number competition drops leaving room which new sellers will come in to take advantage of bringing things back to equilibrium.

    21. Re:I hope that.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      They are idiots, run by the same idiot philosophy which drives eBay - almost no customer service.

      They have 'no customer service' in the same way that a mugger who beats you into a coma with a baseball bat, then takes everything you own has 'no customer service'. They take other people's money seemingly randomly and it's only legal because people don't read or don't understand the implications of their terms and conditions.

      If the laws made more sense what they do would be criminal theft and the management would be held personally responsible.

    22. Re:I hope that.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      Sounds a lot like cash or checks to me.

      Except you don't have to pay a third party a percentage to use cash or checks.

      Paypal has been getting away with what should be classed as criminal theft for a very long time now.

    23. Re:I hope that.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      my experiences with pay pal have been excellent - especially being refunded $2500 for a camera that never appeared. ymmv

      You were lucky, that's all.

      They seem to act reasonably to a few % of people to help disguise the fact they act unreasonably to a much higher %.

    24. Re:I hope that.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      I don't agree with this *at all*. You may have not looked into the dispute thing of paypal. In fact, it's the buyer which is safe in Paypal, and the seller having all the difficulties when a buyer is doing a claim or dispute. In fact, I'd recommend using paypal for anything unsafe if you are a buyer, and I would recommend all possible care for sellers.

      You are advising people to get robbed here. They don't protect the seller or buyer, they protect themselves.

    25. Re:I hope that.. by RichardJenkins · · Score: 1
    26. Re:I hope that.. by GPLHost-Thomas · · Score: 1

      I've been using paypal for more than 8 years, with thousands of transactions, I think I know what I'm talking about here. Also, I heard so many times about people complaining about the verification process of paypal, and complaining that their account was blocked. Considering the high number of fraud on the internet, I don't think paypal can be blame.

      If paypal has to be blame for something, it's their rate. Not only they are very expensive (4% is hardly unmatched), but also when you move money from one currency to another, they take another 4%. And in many cases you can't do without such currency conversion, because Paypal wouldn't let you add a bank account on the currency you want.

    27. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      will they have an off-the-books paypal as well ? what the hell do they think will happen to that , it will just vanish in thin air or ppl will start trading off the books sheep and cameltoes ?

    28. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They change their customer service number regularly, to reduce their call volume. I imagine this number will be deactivated today.

      I stopped using PayPal when they brought it to my attention that they can at their whim prevent me from withdrawing any funds I have on account with them for an arbitrary period of time; since then I have dealt entirely with regulated banks. I was surprised to find when I switched that I could get better merchant rates on PayPal transactions through BankOfAmerica than I could through PayPal itself. It's not clear to me why anyone uses PayPal.

    29. Re:I hope that.. by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Until recently checks had transction fees unless one had a rather high (if living check to check) minimum balacne in their account.

      Money orders have fees (paypal is really closest to a fast, cheaper money order IMO).

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    30. Re:I hope that.. by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Yeah, PayPal is going to replace cash, sure. They were saying the same thing about credit cards fifty years ago.

    31. Re:I hope that.. by realityimpaired · · Score: 1

      My credit union has offered mobile electronic payments for almost 30 years. I still have to carry a wallet, because I still have to have somewhere to put their card, along with my Visa and Mastercard. I used to do things purely electronically with my Interac card, but I actually went back to using primarily cash for everything that isn't a large purchase or gas, because it is easier to budget that way. That is a problem that Paypal will never overcome, because they don't want to overcome it: if you're not budgeting your cash properly, you spend more, and they make more commission.

    32. Re:I hope that.. by TheTyrannyOfForcedRe · · Score: 1

      I don't agree with this *at all*. You may have not looked into the dispute thing of paypal. In fact, it's the buyer which is safe in Paypal, and the seller having all the difficulties when a buyer is doing a claim or dispute. In fact, I'd recommend using paypal for anything unsafe if you are a buyer, and I would recommend all possible care for sellers.

      You are advising people to get robbed here. They don't protect the seller or buyer, they protect themselves.

      I've been using ebay since before Paypal existed. I have hundreds of transactions under my belt as both a buyer and a seller. I continue to buy and sell to this day. The unholy ebay/payal machine is so heavily in favor of buyers it's ridiculous. I never, ever worry about buying anything. I do worry about sales. On expensive items I worry a lot! The buyer/seller power imbalance is so bad I've cut my selling down to things that I absolutely can not get rid of any other way.

      --
      "Liechtenstein is the world's largest producer of sausage casings, potassium storage units, and false teeth."
    33. Re:I hope that.. by JDeane · · Score: 1

      Looked into it, emailed them about it, tried to call them on the phone, got zero response from them. Wonderful company they withdrew the money almost instantly from my account. Checked on my order to see if it had been shipped approximately 48 hours later and found out the company I had bought from was "Out of business" with in 1 minute of seeing that I started the whole process of dealing with "PayPal" and never did get anywhere with them. I hope they enjoyed the lack of my business and anyone else would be do well to avoid them. I can only hope that the few bucks they made off of me is lost to them from the loss of my business. My order fell completely in the terms of there conditions and was flatly ignored.

      End of the day PayPal earned a huge fuck you in my book, they could have at least set up an auto responder that said fuck off in the email.

      Also note that this was over 10 years ago, they may have improved or changed since then. Of course the guy who robbed your house and raped your wife might have repented his sins and turned over a new leaf doesn't mean you thank him and welcome him back into your house to sit and have dinner with you and your wife...

      Cannot recommend PayPal at all, I wouldn't let them anywhere near anything of value.

    34. Re:I hope that.. by JDeane · · Score: 1

      The one time I tried PayPal would lead me to believe this. The feeling I got out of the whole deal was that they made there money from the transaction and after that they really didn't give a rats ass. The reason I say its a "feeling" is that they never did respond to any my calls or emails. I was probably one PayPals first victims er I mean customer... maybe..

    35. Re:I hope that.. by lopaka1998 · · Score: 1

      The fraud protection is a fraud...

      No, it's not... Didn't you read between the lines of the agreement? They forgot to mention that you have to defraud them to get it.

      That's why I always use a credit card with them. Had the same problem once. My credit card co took care of it. As paypal refused to live up to their agreement, I helped them make the right choice and made them live up to their obligations.

    36. Re:I hope that.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      Until recently checks had transction fees unless one had a rather high (if living check to check) minimum balacne in their account.

      Money orders have fees (paypal is really closest to a fast, cheaper money order IMO).

      Are you saying where you live account to account bank transfers actually cost more than paypal? That's insane!

      Bank to bank transfers are free in all of Europe. Even from one bank to another, even from one country to another, even from one currency to another. OK, the last part is only half true as they will sting you for exchange fees but not transfer fees as such.

    37. Re:I hope that.. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      Paypal taking 4% is the least of your problems. It's only a matter of time until they take everything. It's their standard business practice and it will get you sooner or later like it got so many other people.

      Sure there is a lot of fraud on the internet. That doesn't make it OK for paypal to use any excuse to take other people's money and keep it.

    38. Re:I hope that.. by GPLHost-Thomas · · Score: 1

      Looked into it, emailed them about it, tried to call them on the phone, got zero response from them.

      This is the totally wrong way to deal with the issue here. Don't call, don't email, just open a claim using the paypal web interface which is made just for that, and you will get your money back within maximum 15 days.

    39. Re:I hope that.. by JDeane · · Score: 1

      Looked into it, emailed them about it, tried to call them on the phone, got zero response from them.

      This is the totally wrong way to deal with the issue here. Don't call, don't email, just open a claim using the paypal web interface which is made just for that, and you will get your money back within maximum 15 days.

      They had this feature 10 years ago? (The answer is no.)

    40. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Next you'll be claiming Sony is fine now.

      Who the hell modded this guy insightful for linking wikipedia?

    41. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Australian banks, for example, generally give you a specified number of "free transactions" on your accounts on a monthly basis. Once you've exceeded your allotment of free transactions then you're slugged processing fees. Certain types of transactions, such as foreign currency ones, don't count towards your free transactions they are always charged a fee.

      Someone idiot in the banking community must think that this is great because it discourages transactions, but it winds up hurting them because customers withdraw all of their money on pay day and then pay cash for everything - all that money is no longer available for banks to invest on the short term money market.

    42. Re:I hope that.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish people would learn to use REVERSALS on their credit cards.

      Credit card providers automatically reverse disputed credit card transactions. It's then up to the merchant (Paypal in this case) to prove that services were actually rendered otherwise they don't get paid.

  2. Wallet != Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wallets aren't only used to carry money or credit cards.

    1. Re:Wallet != Money by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Easily nitpicked sound-bites serve ads.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    2. Re:Wallet != Money by fermat1313 · · Score: 2

      Wallets aren't only used to carry money or credit cards.

      Right. It's a ridiculous statement on the surface, and the concept of everyone using mobile payments is also ridiculous. My mom won't use a debit card, and refuses to purchase anything online. She also uses a basic phone with almost no features. Unless he's planning on knocking my mom off in the next four years, his prediction isn't going to come true.

    3. Re:Wallet != Money by Elbereth · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Because there are so many non-transportation uses for cars.

    4. Re:Wallet != Money by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Where am I supposed to keep the papers that the govt will supposedly make me produce on a whim?

    5. Re:Wallet != Money by Demanufacture · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but I can honestly say that I quite regularly use cars for non-transportation purposes. To me, a car is also a generator and a climate controlled environment. My line of work takes me to various locations which don't have any shelter or electricity, so the car becomes a mobile office for all intents and purposes.

      --
      --- "When you're strange"
    6. Re:Wallet != Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yep, until iCondom comes out, wallets will be safe.

    7. Re:Wallet != Money by Ceiynt · · Score: 1

      I hope you keep a second wallet to hold the papers proving the first papers are your papers.

    8. Re:Wallet != Money by iamhassi · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I have not used my wallet to carry cash in 20 years. Yes, 20 years. My wallet has my drivers license and other various forms of ID, several credit cards, business cards and membership rewards cards like movie theater, etc. I don't foresee all of that vanishing in 3.5 years.

      In fact my business only accepts credit cards or electronic checks and I'm still shocked how many customers ask to pay with cash.

      Maybe they meant 2025. That seems far more realistic.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    9. Re:Wallet != Money by Omestes · · Score: 1

      My car is my home, you insensitive clod!

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    10. Re:Wallet != Money by iamhassi · · Score: 4, Funny

      So your mom walks around with large wads of cash in her purse? Where is she right now?

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    11. Re:Wallet != Money by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Interesting
      And more important, a wallet doesn't charge a transaction fee to anyone. On the internet, content is king - everywhere else it's cash.

      Wallets also carry bank cards, ID cards, drivers licenses, bus and subway tickets, all sorts of other cards (and credit, store, and gas cards WANT you to see their logo every time you pull it out).

      What next - "Paypal predicts the end of the purse by 2020?"

      Paypal will disappear long before wallets do.

    12. Re:Wallet != Money by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Informative

      You haven't been to Europe have you? It's a place where debit and credit cards and not accepted at every corner store for purchasing a mars bar. Even here in Australia many stores won't let you use a payment system which requires commission such as a credit card without a minimum purchase, and even for large purchases will charge a surcharge for Amex or DinersClub. I typically carry around $100 in my wallet. My cousin in Europe carries around 600euro and this is considered normal.

    13. Re:Wallet != Money by Ambvai · · Score: 1

      Funny. I routinely dine at restaurants that only take cash.

    14. Re:Wallet != Money by michael_cain · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Most commonly used stuff from my wallet, in rough order of frequency: debit card, which is their point, but less in total than the other things; grocery store "membership" card, or whatever you want to call that; rec center card; library cards, one for the local public library, one for university research library; blood donor card; driver's license; health insurance card; cash goes in there somewhere, but I'm not sure just where.

      While the most common use for my wallet is small payments, the most important use is to establish identity for various organizations. If PayPal really wants to replace my wallet, identity verification is the service that they really need to add.

    15. Re:Wallet != Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Note to self, Mug people in europe, not australia.

    16. Re:Wallet != Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You shouldn't keep condoms in a wallet. Didn't you take sex ed in school?

      But seriously, condoms suck anyway. If you've never done it without a condom, you really don't know what you're missing. And if you have, you'll never want to go back. There is no comparison. But I also don't fuck random girls who might be full of diseases, so if you're into that kind of thing, you might want to live with them.

    17. Re:Wallet != Money by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      It's a great way to hide how much money they are making from the government. If it's all cash, and the customer doesn't ask for a receipt, they can just pretend the transaction didn't happen.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    18. Re:Wallet != Money by RapmasterT · · Score: 1

      I'd say it's not fair to pick apart a soundbite pedantically, but when said soundbite is THIS inane and begging for it, I say go right ahead.

      I can't remember the last time I carried cash in my wallet, and only carry one credit card. So you could eliminate the entire CONCEPT of currency and I'd still carry a wallet. Unless Paypal is also planning on eliminating the concepts of drivers license, work ID, key cards, notes to myself, receipts, medical ID cards, and concealed carry permits, my wallet is going to remain very useful to me.

    19. Re:Wallet != Money by ancienthart · · Score: 2

      Seriously? That's your argument? A wallet's like a car and we only use a car for transport?

      What I carry in my wallet, even when I'm cash-free.
      Driver's Licence, Medicare Card, business cards and phone numbers before I enter/scan them into my smartphone, receipts from expensive purchases (which I store when I get home) and lacteze tablets.

      Now I know that people are going to say "Store your driver's licence in your car" but in Australia, the driver's license is an often-used piece of identification. Want to collect a parcel? "Do you have your driver's licence on you?" Want to get into a club. "Do you have a driver's licence or proof-of-age card?" (My wife still gets asked for ID and we're both in our 30's.)
      I also know that non-Australians are going to say "Why don't you remember your Medicare Card number and leave the card at home?" In Australia, everything medical is usually done from the physical card, and if a medical emergency pops up, you want the card right on you.
      Finally, EVERY purchase in Australia results in a receipt. (I've heard foreigners comment on the paper-happiness of Australia.) Most small receipts get tossed, but it's happened enough times that I get home, notice something wrong with a purchase (double charged, wrong item, etc.) and have to have some proof of purchase when I get back to the shop. If that doesn't happen, I throw the receipt away at home.

      So you see, my options are: carry a wallet, even if it has no money in it; or carry a handbag. :P

    20. Re:Wallet != Money by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      "Hold on, officer, I'm *UUNNNHH* trying to *MMMUNH!* get my papers out. I need to eat more fiber."

    21. Re:Wallet != Money by RsG · · Score: 1

      Since we're doing anecdotes...

      My wallet has cash, 2 debit cards, ID, discount and gift cards, business cards, and the occasional scrap of paper with something I need to remember on it. No credit cards; anything I want to buy with plastic, I pay debit. Perhaps half of that could be rolled into a smartphone, except I don't own one of those either (cell phone is a prepaid el cheapo model with as few features as I could get away with).

      There are perhaps three places I buy stuff that only take cash, some of which may take cheques (never use them myself, but I think I've seen regular customers pay that way). Many other places I pay in cash anyway. It makes it much easier to control spending, and it removes any fear of fraud; I've encountered at least one case of debit fraud and forged cheques, and more than one case of credit card fraud, but cash is safe from all of the above. If a paper trail is absolutely needed, I'll remember to get a receipt, which oddly enough will go in my wallet. Cash has only one drawback; if I lose the wallet I lose the money. But if I lose the wallet, I'm in serious trouble no matter how much cash was in it.

      And no, I'm not as old as you might picture from the above description. I'm still, just, under thirty.

      If TFA were arguing that wallets won't see the twenty second century, I might buy it. I'd have a healthy dose of skepticism, mind you, but at least it's plausible. 2015? Pure, utter, marketroid bullshit. And, no surprise, it's paypal endorsing it. Yeah, they're an objective, sensible observer.

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    22. Re:Wallet != Money by RussR42 · · Score: 1

      So you see, my options are: carry a wallet, even if it has no money in it; or carry a handbag. :P

      Nothing wrong with a guy carrying a bag. I bet many of us do it often as we venture out into the world. You just don't notice it because guys don't always leave their bags laying around and whine about them. That's the difference between "a bag of useful things I will need before I get home again" and a "purse". :)

    23. Re:Wallet != Money by MartinSchou · · Score: 1

      You haven't been to Europe have you? It's a place where debit and credit cards and not accepted at every corner store for purchasing a mars bar

      That and ... you know ... waiting for your bank to approve a 70 cent purchase is likely to get you beaten up for being an ass.

    24. Re:Wallet != Money by NRISecretAgent · · Score: 1

      Fair enough... but that's still only after you've gotten where you were going. Yes it has it's other uses. When was the last time you thought, "Ohhh, I'll take the car with me so I have somewhere to sleep" as opposed to "So I can get there." The same can't be said for a wallet. Sometimes you DO just take it with you because it has your ID/license in there. I do think there are is a fundamental difference there. Until they come with a way of authenticating virtual IDs (Yes, that's a government issued ID on your phone, you can go in/rent tool/buy gun...) I think the wallet will still be around. They are getting there though. Card Star is pretty close as long as it doesn't have to represent you so much as a particular account.

    25. Re:Wallet != Money by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      In fact my business only accepts credit cards or electronic checks and I'm still shocked how many customers ask to pay with cash.

      You know, this twisted US Treasury interpretation that "legal tender" doesn't have to be accepted as a means of cancelling a debt really shoots the meaning of "legal tender" right in the ass.

      How can something be officially sanctioned as a means of paying a debt if all someone has to do is say "no"? I mean, the US Government has said, in federal law, that the ten dollar bill I'm handing you is "legal tender for all debts", which means it is a specified way of cancelling that debt. How can you override federal law by saying "no, it isn't?"

      Now, I ASSUME you are quite clear up front before letting someone rack up a debt that they will not be able to pay with real money. Otherwise I cannot see how you can be within the law by refusing it as payment. The only way out I see is if you don't allow someone who wants to pay with cash to incur the debt to start with.

    26. Re:Wallet != Money by guyminuslife · · Score: 1

      I don't think you know what non-Australians are going to say. In America everything is the same except that "Medicare" is only for old people. So what I'm saying is, "Should I get off your lawn?"

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
    27. Re:Wallet != Money by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      I lost my first wallet with all my cards, cash, etc. about 34 years ago.
      I lost my second wallet with all my cards, id, cash, etc. about 32 years ago.

      I stopped using a wallet and have never used one again.
      I haven't lost a card or id since. I think I have occasionally lost single bills but never all of them at once.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    28. Re:Wallet != Money by soundguy · · Score: 1

      Funny. I routinely dine at restaurants that only take cash.

      The roach coach does not count as a "restaurant"

      --
      Nothing worthwhile ever happens before noon
    29. Re:Wallet != Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carry many condoms in mine.. What are they thinking?

    30. Re:Wallet != Money by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      Nothing wrong with a guy carrying a bag.

      Just as well. What I carry in my bag, even when I'm cash-free:
      Wallet with its contents (heh! just so I don't have to fossick for cards and cash), 3 pairs of glasses, car keys, phone, fountain pen, notebook, small tin of mints, iPod, receipts.

      Not that I necessarily need all of these things at every moment of the day, but it makes things a lot easier if I don't have to do without.

    31. Re:Wallet != Money by improfane · · Score: 1

      What do you do instead?

      I usually take out only what I need. A single credit card or some cash. I have a card holder but that stays in my bag which is in my 'base' is for the day, such as in a house or in my car.

      --
      Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
    32. Re:Wallet != Money by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      It's a great way to hide how much money they are making from the government.

      Well, I'm all for that given the amount of money our government manages to mismanage or outright waste. I'm talking mostly about Australia here, but I don't know of any country where this doesn't apply. If I had some evidence that the government used my money wisely (or even on something vaguely useful, sometimes) I wouldn't take such pleasure in the mild subversion of my own very trivial tax dodges.

    33. Re:Wallet != Money by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      I've been in many places in europe for the past decade and amazingly just about the only place that doesn't take visa's debit card is.. finnish train conductors, they'll take regular visa though(this would include spain, uk, germany, austria and even france). carrying 600euro in wallet is not normal, only people I know who do that are either going to spend that on something they don't want on their bank statement or the elderly who've accustomed to going to the teller and withdrawing a lot at once. all kebab places, kiosks etc etc take cards, if they don't it's bad business, basically if it's a business with an address they will take cards. mobile POS devices are all over the place too. minimum purchases when they're enforced are typically 3.5euros or so(bigger the store, the more likely that there's no minimum).

      you still need a wallet to keep your train tickets/cards, banking codes etc etc in. if a place doesn't take cards it's likely they're not doing things by the book. anyways - paypal is wrong. you need to have a certain amount of redundancy - if your phone works as a wallet and you lose it, what then? what will you buy the new phone with? I predict people will be carrying the holy trinity for a long time still - the holy trinity is keys, wallet and phone. you lose any two and you can still get home to sort the rest out.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    34. Re:Wallet != Money by 1s44c · · Score: 2

      You haven't been to Europe have you? It's a place where debit and credit cards and not accepted at every corner store for purchasing a mars bar. Even here in Australia many stores won't let you use a payment system which requires commission such as a credit card without a minimum purchase, and even for large purchases will charge a surcharge for Amex or DinersClub. I typically carry around $100 in my wallet. My cousin in Europe carries around 600euro and this is considered normal.

      In the UK you can use credit or debt cards for just about any purchase, Small stores sometimes get pissy about it though. In the Netherlands it's very common to use debt cards to buy a sandwich or a bottle of cola. It's certainly not common to carry around more than about 100 Euros here, 600 sounds like asking for trouble. I don't know where in Europe your cousin is though, things vary a lot from country to country.

    35. Re:Wallet != Money by 1s44c · · Score: 2

      You haven't been to Europe have you? It's a place where debit and credit cards and not accepted at every corner store for purchasing a mars bar

      That and ... you know ... waiting for your bank to approve a 70 cent purchase is likely to get you beaten up for being an ass.

      It varies a lot from country to country but it is common practice to buy that 70 cent mars bar with a debt card in the Netherlands. You don't need to wait more than about a second for the bank to approve the transaction. That and people are not so unhappy about waiting for 10 to 20 seconds extra here, it's all ( annoyingly ) slow paced.

    36. Re:Wallet != Money by ancienthart · · Score: 1

      I assumed medical details were handled by the Social Security Number? I know it's a tax number, but from what I've heard, it's sometimes/often used for identification purposes as well, and I assumed that it is/becoming an over-arching identification system in America?

      In Australia, the Tax File Number is only used to submit tax returns. Most of us have to look at last year's return in order to remember it to put on this year's return.

    37. Re:Wallet != Money by Tadu · · Score: 2

      My cousin in Europe carries around 600euro and this is considered normal.

      This is certainly not an amount considered normal for every-day usage here in Germany, and I seriously doubt this is the case in any other European country.

      Also note that in Europa, there is the EC card (currently being renamed to girocard or some such) - essentially a regular bank card that you can pay with, either with PIN code (also requires commission, but less than credit cards) or with signature (allowing direct debit and agreeing to pay fees caused by cancelling that direct debit).

      And last, but not least, there's also the GeldKarte (money card) - another application on your bank card that you can load small amounts of money for micro payments, accepted at some vendin machines and some shops - it didn't reach the popularity the banks anticipated, but almost any bank card carries the GeldKarte logo.

      All in all, there's pretty much no place for PayPal in Europa - except for people believing the "buyer protection" mythos and smaller mechants. But small amounts are still frequently paid in cash - why give banks an additional share coupled with a slow down in the paying process?

    38. Re:Wallet != Money by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      Understatement of the day (by ls44c) :-

      Small stores sometimes get pissy about [using cards] though

      In the UK there are plent of grocery/corner type shops and even things like car spares, builders merchants and other specialist shops, who will refuse a card for any purchase under 25 pounds (or similar figure). That rules out most convenience purchases.

      The reason is simple. My wife was book keeper at a small plastics engineering company, where the boss refused to deal with credit cards. To have added a credit card facility would have cost staggering amounts of money for a small company - a set-up fee, running fees, and an extortionate % commission on each transaction.

      Another reason is speed. At a commuter railway station I used to use, everyone arrived for their train with only a minute (or a second) to spare. Guys would pick up a newspaper from a kiosk while running for the train, tossing the coin to the newsagent. The business of the kiosk would have collapsed if people had to stop and type a PIN number.

      Whatever jobs you guys have, to make big money you should get into the credit card business where you rake in typically about 2% of every transaction going on. Just add that up - and the "work" is done by a computer. Don't BS me that they have to deal with customer problems - they do not want to know - I've tried it.

    39. Re:Wallet != Money by Cinnamon+Whirl · · Score: 2

      600 euros? thats a lot of mars bars..............

    40. Re:Wallet != Money by arkenian · · Score: 1

      If you're young, and lucky, you have a private insurance card which has its own unique number, which, no less, changes every year when your company changes insurance providers ;) It has TWO numbers, one for your plan and one for you.

    41. Re:Wallet != Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry officer. I don't carry a license anymore. I have PayPal.

    42. Re:Wallet != Money by crofoot · · Score: 1

      Uhhh...I think a credit card is what she probably uses...

    43. Re:Wallet != Money by geoffaus · · Score: 1

      Im Australian living in the Netherlands - credit cards are rarely accepts - debit and PIN are fine though - PIN is limited to €50 and has no security - lose your card and its gone too. Carrying €600 is definitely not normal - I would say €50-100 is

      --
      As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
    44. Re:Wallet != Money by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      Conversely in Japan, you can pay for most everything through your phone - including train rides. Interestingly enough, credit cards work a bit differently there as well.

    45. Re:Wallet != Money by taiwanjohn · · Score: 1

      What, no condoms? ;-)

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
    46. Re:Wallet != Money by andreyvul · · Score: 1

      It's likely all the weed and gabber.

      --
      proud caffeine whore
    47. Re:Wallet != Money by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      It's likely all the weed and gabber.

      I suspect you are joking but I'll reply anyway.

      You ( assuming you are considered an adult in your country ) could go into a shop and legally buy enough alcohol to put yourself in a coma. Chances are you have not done this recently. It's the same with weed in the Netherlands, people can buy it legally but on the whole they don't. Mostly tourists and kids smoke weed as it has little novelty value for anyone else.

    48. Re:Wallet != Money by iamhassi · · Score: 1

      "That and ... you know ... waiting for your bank to approve a 70 cent purchase is likely to get you beaten up for being an ass."

      What waiting? Maybe in Europe the approval is slow, but it literally one second for the credit card machines to approve a card in the US. People groan when someone pulls out cash to pay for things because it takes the cashier longer to accept the money and give back change than it does to swipe a card.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    49. Re:Wallet != Money by danomac · · Score: 1

      He never said she carries a purse. Maybe she hides money in cleavage.

    50. Re:Wallet != Money by ancienthart · · Score: 1

      What, no condoms? ;-)

      1. Condoms are often damaged if stored in a wallet for any length of time.
      2. Just married and trying for a baby. I think I'd get shot if my wife found condoms in my wallet. :D

    51. Re:Wallet != Money by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      I have a wad of id, 2 or 3 credit cards, Atm card plus bills (0-15) in my left pocket. The lose format makes it impossible to lay it down anywhere or for it to fall out of my pocket (since the bills have more friction than a wallet).

      I keep less frequently used cards like insurance cards and restaurant discount cards in a tiny car drawer and take them out on arrival at that location.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    52. Re:Wallet != Money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While there is no explicit transaction fee with cash, it still costs you indirectly, the cost is wear and tear on notes and coins which have to be periodically replaced by your country's mint, which is funded by taxes you pay. It is feasible for transaction charges on electronic transactions to be lower than the cost of using cash.

    53. Re:Wallet != Money by tomhudson · · Score: 1
      Cost of computer, cost of electricity, cost of net connection, cost of servers, cost of lines / wireless transmitters, cost of right-of-way, cost of maintenance and upgrades,cost of hazardous waste disposal, etc. vs. cost of stamping out a coin that will last 20 years. The coin is cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

      The new plastic notes are also more durable, so ...

  3. No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use a wallet to carry my credit cards.

  4. PayPal. by pro151 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Is full of shit! (Can I say that here?)

    1. Re:PayPal. by Oxford_Comma_Lover · · Score: 0

      [Paypal] Is full of shit! (Can I say that here?)

      So long as you include the "Paypal," you can say it anywhere.

      --
      -- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
    2. Re:PayPal. by jcoy42 · · Score: 2

      We don't really give a fuck what you say.

      It's a news blog for nerds, not a church.

      --
      Never trust an atom. They make up everything.
    3. Re:PayPal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a fucking moron. And, a racist on top of that, too.

    4. Re:PayPal. by pro151 · · Score: 0

      You remind me of GLR.

    5. Re:PayPal. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You remind me of the KKK.

    6. Re:PayPal. by pro151 · · Score: 0

      I thought so. So how are you tonight? Shame the forum is dead tonight isn't it.

  5. stupid article by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

    it starts off:

    As new technology emerges, one can safely assume that the days of carrying a wallet will soon end.

    control-w.

    who greenlighted this crap??

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    1. Re:stupid article by bobjr94 · · Score: 1

      Very true, now we all have 5 or more rewards cards, half used gift cards, new gift cards to restaurants we don't goto, etc....

    2. Re:stupid article by TheABomb · · Score: 1

      There's an Android app (and probably some for IOS that do the same thing for $3) that stores a scanned version of all your rewards cards. Doesn't work for the ones that they punch holes in, but it's not entirely necessary to carry all those cards (except the ones they give you for your keychain).

      --
      MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
    3. Re:stupid article by suutar · · Score: 1

      and, once in a while, this green paper stuff.

    4. Re:stupid article by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I would love to punch some holes in a smart phone to indicate rewards...

  6. Wouldn't big brother just LOVE this ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck paypal, and fuck mobile payments.

  7. Paypal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please, oh PLEASE someone, ANYONE, give me an alternative to PayPal.

    1. Re:Paypal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Please, oh PLEASE someone, ANYONE, give me an alternative to PayPal.

      Bitcoins? :-)

    2. Re:Paypal by Parsiuk · · Score: 1

      Moneybookers?

  8. One less thing to carry by Mitchell314 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nice. It's a good thing I only use my wallet for cash, and not frivolous other stuff like a driver's license.

    --
    I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
    1. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh and everyone can afford a 200 dollar gadget that goes in their pocket.

    2. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or pictures... or a useful place to put those business cards you don't really want in the first place... or receipts you really need to keep in order to fill out expense reports...

      I predict bulging pockets.

    3. Re:One less thing to carry by bennomatic · · Score: 1

      Well, if a mobile phone can be your boarding pass for a plane, there's no real reason it couldn't be a driver's license, too. Instead of a magnetic strip it could have a bar code which would reflect a real-time, signed stamp of authenticity from the DMV's servers, which code could be read by a cop's mobile device and verified. Between that and doing a visual validation of the embedded picture, you've got something that's every bit as good as a printed license.

      Maybe better; someone might loan their younger brother an ID to allow them to go to a bar one night, but they're not going to give them their mobile phone for any amount of time. And they'll notice it's stolen much, much faster.

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
    4. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aside from the fact that software and codes can be reverse engineered and hacked much easier than a physical ID or passport can be forged.

      Also say hello to big brother.

    5. Re:One less thing to carry by jawtheshark · · Score: 2

      So what happens when you get stopped and your cellphone isn't charged? Just saying, there are advantages to physical tokens.

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    6. Re:One less thing to carry by Mitchell314 · · Score: 1

      As much as it pains a geek like me to say this, I still must note that just because something can be digitalized doesn't mean it should. As posted in sister replies below/above me, this brings up many serious issues, like running out of battery power.

      --
      I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
    7. Re:One less thing to carry by krotkruton · · Score: 4, Funny

      When they figure out a way to put a condom in a mobile phone, then the wallet will be obsolete.

    8. Re:One less thing to carry by martin-boundary · · Score: 1
      Mobile phones don't last that long, and it's a hassle to replace. What we really need is a bar code tatooed on people's foreheads at birth. That way, they don't need to carry anything in their pockets (*)

      (*) Except for a barcode scanner, so one can identify the people one meets.

    9. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This will work oso well in rural areas with sketchy, if not non-existent, data service.

      And forget about any dead-battery issues. Or your phone just being bricked because you dropped it in the toilet at the last rest stop.

      Heavens! What if the cop wanted to physically take your license? What if read your messages? Or perused your address book? No potential problems there, nosiree!

      Sorry. A cell phone is just too darn fragile to rely on for important ID. It's also too fragile for sole use as a wallet. Do you really want your wallet to be something you take out of the safety of your pocket for every little whim? Do you really want your wallet subject to having a dead battery? Just think. You could be stranded with NO money, NO identification, and NO way to call for help. That's real smart.

      I might use my phone for financial transactions, but there is no way I'll rely on it for ID or be my sole financial instrument.

    10. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Papers, comrade.

    11. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or a national ID card, working as a passport, social security and national health insurance card..

    12. Re:One less thing to carry by rickkw · · Score: 2

      Thinking outside of the box -- why put condom inside a mobile phone? Put your mobile phone inside layers of condoms. just peel one off each time you need one. as a side benefit, it makes your phone instantly waterproof.

    13. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So why do you have to carry a driver's license? Any cop should be able to access a license database with your photo and other info, and verify that you are permitted to drive. They do this anyway.

    14. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they already don't need to see your license

      tell them your name, and they can look you up on their own computers. they can see all your personal information, if your picture matches, if your license is valid, if you have insurance, everything. there is no reason for you to be compelled to carry your license with you except it's an easy way to fine you more money if you happen to not have it.

    15. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whats in your wallet?
      a condom

    16. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just store your drivers license in the cloud, man. Problem solved.

    17. Re:One less thing to carry by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      The quote should be "We will no longer need to carry a wallet" and NOT "no one will be carrying a wallet anymore".

      And this, I can actually believe, I've already seen cops have DMV digital pictures of us on their laptops in their patrol cars. Now, this doesn't mean that they'll ban people from carrying their own id/driver license, that's probably never going to happen, but as long as your car is not reported stolen, and you're not black or something, I can envision it not being a big deal of not having your own driver license on you during a traffic stop.

    18. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because he would need a phone the size of a crayon in order to have the condom still fit his penis after it was removed.

    19. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure my grandmother would love to touch a mobile device for the first time in her life.

    20. Re:One less thing to carry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Article is obviously wrong - since some of us actually refuse to carry a phone.

      I'm the guy who will keep wallets relevant, no need to thank me.

    21. Re:One less thing to carry by danomac · · Score: 1

      Everyone's going to get a chip implanted. No cards or money required. What could possibly go wrong?!

  9. Paper/plastic money sure by supertrinko · · Score: 1

    While I never carry money any more, I'm confident I'll still be using a wallet to carry various cards, credit cards, library cards, ID's...

    --
    If it rhymes it must be true.
    1. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by slackzilly · · Score: 1

      There will come a time when all your cards will be digital. Driving license, library card, discount cards at starbucks etc.

      --
      - "If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we as a togetherness can create."
    2. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I prefer the wallet that is safe under my butt rather than being stored digitally in a cloud over Timbuktoo!

    3. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      While I never carry money any more,

      How do you pay your weed dealer?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by haxwk · · Score: 1

      Well, you see, there's an app for that.

    5. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by bennomatic · · Score: 2

      Bitcoins!

      --
      The CB App. What's your 20?
    6. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      What do you mean "all your cards will be digital"? I'm going to guess you are saying that they will be on my phone, but I am going to tell you that I think it improbable that my driver's license will be on my phone in my lifetime. Especially considering how small a percentage of the total population actually owns a phone capable of having those cards on it.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    7. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by slackzilly · · Score: 1

      I was thinking mobile phones when i wrote it, yes. Not everybody owns a smart phone NOW, but eventually as new models arrive the older models become cheaper. And everybody wants to have the toys that the "rich" people already have.
      I definately don't think it will happen in the near future, but I truly believe it will happen someday. Perhaps towards the end of your lifetime, depending on how well you take care of yourself :)

      --
      - "If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we as a togetherness can create."
    8. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 1

      The problem with smart phones is that while the price of the phones is coming down, as far as I can tell, the cost of the data plans isn't. It isn't the price of the phones that causes people not to have a smart phone, it is the cost of the data plans.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    9. Re:Paper/plastic money sure by slackzilly · · Score: 1

      Storing an ID on the phone doesn't cost anything. Transferring it to the phone could cost something, but it can easily be issued via bluetooth or infrared connection, for example from the DMV when you pass the driving test. The possibility of losing the phone is another problem though, and is the way I see it the biggest hurdle in implementing this idea.

      --
      - "If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we as a togetherness can create."
  10. Not until... by p0p0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... they are certified as a bank, and are required to offer the same protections and liabilities as one. I've never had problems with PayPal, but I've heard horror stories of lost money and account freezes with no real hope on recovering what you lost.

    1. Re:Not until... by nospam007 · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Not until ...... they are certified as a bank,"

      Rejoice then.

      "Commencing July 2, 2007, as PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A., PayPal moved its European operations from the UK to Luxembourg. As a Luxembourg entity, it is since regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) and provides PayPal service throughout the European Union."

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal#Bank_status

    2. Re:Not until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That doesn't help anyone outside the European Union, though. They still have free rein to do as they will outside the EU.

    3. Re:Not until... by BenoitRen · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's only in Europe. They still aren't a bank in the USA, as the article you linked points out.

    4. Re:Not until... by rsborg · · Score: 1

      "Not until ...... they are certified as a bank,"

      Rejoice then.

      "Commencing July 2, 2007, as PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A., PayPal moved its European operations from the UK to Luxembourg. As a Luxembourg entity, it is since regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) and provides PayPal service throughout the European Union."

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal#Bank_status

      Well, well... I wonder when are they going to get certified in the USA?

      --
      Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    5. Re:Not until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It does amaze me how often this gets stated and repeated by people, when a little research rapidly reveals that it *is* a bank...

    6. Re:Not until... by Ricardo · · Score: 1

      In that case...

      NOT EVEN IF ... they manage to get certified as a bank, using some loophole. (or any other means really).

      EVEN IF they finally start behaving like a Luxembourg company and allow donations wikileaks again.

      --
      Move along... there is no sig here.
    7. Re:Not until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And there are good reasons why it has moved to Luxembourg and not other European countries.

    8. Re:Not until... by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Even if certified as a bank they're still douches that should be avoided. Use them for buying crap on the net, don't use them for your 401K or checking account. Better yet, don't use them for crap on the net and boycott sites that mandate use of PayPal.

    9. Re:Not until... by houghi · · Score: 1

      Why would that matter? Do you trust American banks more then European ones? Or should they be a bank in each place where they operate? So also in Canada, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Namibia and every other country that has Internet.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    10. Re:Not until... by green1 · · Score: 1

      The problem isn't that American banks are any better or worse than European banks, or Canadian banks, or any other banks (that's a completely different argument)
      The problem is that paypal is only regulated as a bank in one jurisdiction. Which means that unless you are in that particular jurisdiction, paypal is free to ignore all the rules that would make it behave like a real bank.
      As long as they continue to arbitrarily seize funds, cancel transaction, withhold payments, etc. they simply can't be trusted. I'd be ok with them being regulated as a bank in pretty much any of the major first world areas, as long as it affected all of their operations worldwide, but as long as it only affects their operations in that one area it won't help until it's the same area in which I reside.

    11. Re:Not until... by geoffaus · · Score: 1

      Ive found the problem is freezing your account when you make a transfer that they deem suspicious - I had them freeze one to a tour operator in Peru - I didnt understand why they couldnt look at the recipient's account and work out that based on the business they are doing its probably legit - I think also it was blocked because it was initiated from Peru - another thing that probably should have made sense. Luckily I had a friend at Paypal that sorted it out. My friend said that they helped implement changes that resulted in the security dept reducing their account lockouts by 70% Apparently their only measurement was fraud prevention hence they had a motivation to block any transfer that looked even slightly dodgy - obviously if you block every transaction their will be no fraud and they will meet their only objective - too bad for the rest of the company

      --
      As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
  11. Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by liquidweaver · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Every conversation I've had recently about Paypal was a.) Brought up by the person I was talking with, not me b.) revolved around how much they hated PayPal, and would rather write transfer/check/trade sheep anything but use them again.

    --
    mov ah, 4ch
    int 21h
    1. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Amen to that! Paypal can go straight to hell. I used them once, and got burned really badly. That whole ordeal still pisses me off to this day, and till the day that I die. Fuckers!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http:/www.paypalsucks.com/

      I bought an iPod touch over eBay. It didn't work. PayPal refused to refund because it was advertised as refurbished.
      I suggest that if PayPal is the only option, then i'll stick with the wallet thanks.

      Just in case you missed it ;)
      http:/www.paypalsucks.com/

    3. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by MindStalker · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually you got burned by the other buyer/seller. I've used paypal for 3 years now to accept payment from clients for independent web programming. I only do business with people I trust and never had any clients attempt to charge back from me. So for me paypal has been fine, the have never been a problem at all. //I also use the paypal debit card, and not put the money into my bank so paypal can't hold payments from my bank, just from my attempted ATM withdrawls I guess, though they have never done so.

    4. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by djmurdoch · · Score: 1

      But you work for them. I don't believe anything you say about PayPal.

    5. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by pizzach · · Score: 1

      I sold something for about $1000 on Paypal a few months ago. I kept the money in paypal in case I had to do a return thinking it was the honest thing to do. Ended up doing a return later, and the return took the money from my bank account instead of paypal. The timing was so that I had no money for anything for 4 days because they emptied out my bank account. I also happened to have no gas or food in the fridge. The paypal fuckers can die in hell. Do not touch paypal people. Ebay is just about as bad.

      --
      Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
    6. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FWIW, I actually got burned by PP. They even refused to give me my money back after I proved the only account tied to theirs was owned by me! Ridiculous and terrible company. They are thieves!

    7. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > you got burned by the other buyer/seller

      I beg to differ. If I am involved in a transaction, I trust the middle man (aka. PayPal) to look after my interests to ensure neither side gets burnt in the transaction. PayPal do not give a sh**, as long as they get paid.

      Your experience carries as much weight as my 6 year old son. He said to me "I have never fallen when climbing", but the very next week, he was in hospital ... he tore his arm open falling from a tree at school. Your argument that it "hasn't happened yet" provides me no comfort. Read http://www.paypalsucks.com/ for plenty of examples of people being burnt by PayPal.

      PayPalSucks

    8. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by hedwards · · Score: 1

      You can also do that with a CC, the upside being that the CC company has a lot more pull than you do if there's a problem on the account. If they fail to deliver the money as promised or refund it you can report them to the CC company for fraud and have the CC company issue a charge back. Which under the circumstances would be the right thing to do considering that most people don't give PayPal money just to keep. And nobody in their right minds keeps money in a PayPal account.

    9. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must like losing 3-5% of your income to paypal plus the mandatory 13.5% to the government.

    10. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Ebay totally sucks nuts. Back in the day, awesome. But now, they nickle-n-dime you with fees that any potential profit you may have earned is whittled down to nothing. Basically, selling on e-bay is either for large ticket items or bulk resellers. Craigslist OTOH is complete anarchy, which you may or may not like. Either way, selling on-line is a complete pain in the ass.

      I need to go through some stuff to clean out my home. I would like to sell this stuff online. I'm thinking Amazon might be the ticket, but I have no idea if that's for businesses, or individuals too. I guess I'll have to start my research tomorrow morning. Let me know if you have any recommendations.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    11. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      If you work for people you trust you have no reason to pay a percentage of your earnings to paypal. You worked for that money, it's crazy to just give it away. If you deal with multiple currencies there are much cheaper ways to convert money.

      If you work for people you don't trust paypal will not help you and may take all money in your account at the first sign of trouble. They have done exactly this to very many people.

    12. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never lost money due to PayPal, but when I was using them their customer service was so bad that comparing it to crap was an insult to crap. And it took over six months of constant complaints plus filing complaints with the BBB to get them to shut down my account. Luckily they had only been linked to a free checking account, so I was able to cancel that easily. Also never put much money in that account, which may have something to do with me not losing any to them...

    13. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by MindStalker · · Score: 1

      I don't pay a percentage of earnings from paypal. They charge me about 3.5% when I am being paid via Credit Card, which is pretty much in line with every other merchant. They charge me nothing if they pay via a paypal balance.

    14. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by elsurexiste · · Score: 1

      How do you know?

      --
      I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
    15. Re:Funny about PayPal making a claim like that. by MindStalker · · Score: 1

      Selling through Amazon is pretty easy and you don't have to be a business to do so. There are 3 methods for selling stuff through Amazon.
      1) Books and console games, (maybe some other things) Amazon will just pay you for the item, you don't have to sell it to the end buys, Amazon just buys it from you.
      2) You can list an item on Amazon and once it is sold you ship it to buyer and Amazon collects the money and deposits it into your bank account (yes they can remove it from your account if they have to refund, etc)
      3) You can pay Amazon a storage fee of about 50 cents per cubic foot per month and ship your stuff to them, they will store it for you and ship it out as it gets sold, you hardly have to do anything.

  12. Not a chance by schnikies79 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not if PayPal is the middle-man.

    --
    Gone!
  13. Power of suggestion by gottspeed · · Score: 0

    "Pay-Pal predicts that by the year 2015 everything will be purchased on E-Bay and people will decide to stop buying and selling things privately" Get a grip. The audacity of these corporations is hilarious.

    1. Re:Power of suggestion by mr1911 · · Score: 1

      Yes, but their marketing piece would not have gotten so much attention if they stated "by 2015 we are hoping that a few more people will actually use Paypal".

      --
      This post comes with a double-your-money-back guarantee!
      Any offense taken to this post is at your sole discretion.
    2. Re:Power of suggestion by gottspeed · · Score: 0

      Touche

  14. Cash is not going away by justsomecomputerguy · · Score: 2

    Cash will ALWAYS exist. Whether out of the desire for anonymity, the convenience or the underground economy.

    1. Re:Cash is not going away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, avoiding the tax man is a very important requirement.

    2. Re:Cash is not going away by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you think the ruling class wants to get rid of cash? They can get rid of anonymity (thanks to the patriot act, they can track in real time all digital transactions) as well as the irrational despotic desire to regulate victimless behavior of the population. Then again, if you're against a totalitarian police/surveillecent state that controls and monitors your every move, you are an extremist. Got to love that.

    3. Re:Cash is not going away by green1 · · Score: 1

      How about an even bigger reason to use cash, the lack of a desire to pay some other company to process the payment.

      I work hard to earn my income, if I am giving someone my hard earned money it is either because I am legally obliged to (taxes) or because they are providing a service/product that I deem valuable (we could argue whether the former is a subset of the later or not, but that's a discussion for a different thread).

      The ability to avoid carrying cash is not a service that I am willing to pay for. Especially not at the rates charged by every one of these schemes set up so far.

      I use a bank that both pays interest, and charges no fees. I have a credit card and a debit card, but neither one charges me any fees at all. (I know the retailer pays fees, but if they don't offer me a way to save those fees by paying cash, then there isn't really any benefit to me either way). But when it comes to systems to pay with your mobile phone I have never seen one that doesn't charge the end user large sums of money.

      Until I can use my mobile phone to pay, without incurring any additional fees, I will not be doing so at all.

  15. mobile payment methods by flohuels · · Score: 2

    Isn't a traditional wallet a 'mobile payment method'?

    1. Re:mobile payment methods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a bit money one-point-oh.

  16. And pigs will also all be airborne by then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep on dreaming your wet dreams Paypal. No one will want to use mobile payments for "recreational pharmacy" purchasing, and Im sure other scenarios also apply.
    Also, who trusts the telecompanies with their money? They have shown themselves to be somewhat lacking in the trustworthy department until now.

    1. Re:And pigs will also all be airborne by then by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      "Also, who trusts the telecompanies with their money?"

      Yep, banks are a lot more trustworthy.

    2. Re:And pigs will also all be airborne by then by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you use a little bank instead of a mega bank? Then yes they are.

      I use my debit online often simply because I have a great bank and don't have to worry, because if anyone overcharges or double dips I just walk in and go "Hey Karen guess what? Somebody double dipped when I bought a part online" and she'll go "Ooooh don't you just hate that? My husband bought some tools online last month and that tried that, that's so irritating! Here just let me bring this up...is it this one where there is two back to back? Okay just let me type this...voila! your money is back where it belongs!" and I thank Karen and go on about my way.

      So yeah you can find trustworthy banks out there, it just takes a little more work. I can't use ATMs in most places without paying the fee since my bank is a little local shop, but having hassle free banking with friendly folks is worth it to me. It is also nice to go into a bank and have them know you by name and ask about your family, and treat you like a person instead of a walking cash register.

      As for TFA after getting burnt by Paypal if I had to trade in goats heads and cheese instead of money to keep from doing business with that bunch of scammers I would. every person I've talked to has been burnt at least once by them and got basically told "We got paid so fuck right off" and promptly ignored. Not if they were the last source of money on earth and were giving away hookers and blow with each new account.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  17. Scott Thompson, President, PayPal by Spy+Handler · · Score: 3, Funny

    instead of wallets, he thinks everyone will be carrying man-purses like him by 2015

    1. Re:Scott Thompson, President, PayPal by PPH · · Score: 1

      Well, I carry all my cash, cards and ID in a fanny pack holster.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:Scott Thompson, President, PayPal by Hylandr · · Score: 3, Funny

      We already do carry man-purses. We call them laptop cases.

      - Dan.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    3. Re:Scott Thompson, President, PayPal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sir, are worse then Hitler

    4. Re:Scott Thompson, President, PayPal by isama · · Score: 0

      owgod. Cannot be unseen!

    5. Re:Scott Thompson, President, PayPal by PPH · · Score: 1

      You sir, are worse then Hitler

      Heh! The grammar Nazis are advancing on this post already.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  18. no one CARES what paypal says by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    no one respects paypal, no one trusts them. they won't come clean and be a proper bank (and I use the term 'proper' very loosely).

    who the hell cares what some microblog says about what paypal thinks? news flash: greedy ceo's dream of taking over the world. film at 11.

    crap article to create panic (and page refreshes). this really should have been filtered, slashies.... please do a better job picking the greenlit articles next time.

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    1. Re:no one CARES what paypal says by Pharmboy · · Score: 2

      My first reaction was 'haahahahaha!".

      "They" predicted that the internet would mean the end of books, yet sales are in record territory. "They" predicted that computers would foster the "paperless office"....yeah, how is that working for you? "They" predicted that the war on drugs would reduce usage and addiction. "They" is about the dumbest son of a bitch I have ever met.

      Many, many, MANY people who make less than you and I will continue to carry a wallet for decades to come. In part because many people with less means (and many with more means, btw) do not trust "the system", and like the feel of cold hard cash in their hands.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    2. Re:no one CARES what paypal says by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WhAt iS ThIs fIlM ThAt nEwS-AnChOrS KeEp pRoMiSiNg!!!!!eleven

      I, honestly, am curious.

    3. Re:no one CARES what paypal says by Ponder+Stibions · · Score: 1

      ""They" is about the dumbest son of a bitch I have ever met."

      ""They" are". Not ""They" is"

      People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

      And yes, I agree, 'they' often are wrong. The wallet is not just for carrying cash in, it carries your identity which many people are not about to hand over to a centralized database of iris scans, and all a credit card along with your signature or pin number is is an identity. Wallets also carry other more personal things safely - like the picture of your wife/girlfriend/child etc, your receipts and even somewhere to put your ultra high capacity super micro usb pen drive.

  19. But will it end Man Purses by KingBozo · · Score: 2

    Yep, an my employer will still require receipts for expense reports. Now it 2015 wallets will be gone and I will have to carry a damn man purse.

    Better buy a stock of wallets to have a supply after 2015.

  20. I hope not... by SoundGuyNoise · · Score: 2

    You're on line at the supermarket, and the little old lady in front of you with her eggs and cheese is asked for her loyalty/discount card. Do you think she'll be faster pulling out a piece of plastic, or navigating through her mobile phone from menu to menu to app to option? And the same again if she's paying by credit card.

    Credit/debit payments are gaining a foothold, but it's going to be a loooooong time until we even consider a cashless society.

    And there's few things more enjoyable than giving real cash to a little niece or nephew.

    --
    You never expect irony, do you?
    Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
    @iyfwrestling
    1. Re:I hope not... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      If ti's anything like my mobile phone, she will just need to hold it up against the scanner on the 'card swipe'. She won't have to go looking for anything.

      Giving fake cash to a niece and nephew and watching them realize it's not a real 100 is even more enjoyable~

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:I hope not... by Technician · · Score: 1

      Instead of PayPal.. I think the mobile phone payment system may get some traction. Even vending machines at work have that option now.

      If you are one to give any credence to biblical prophecies, the chip in the cell phone will be moved where it can't be lost of stolen. It will be placed in the hand or forehead. After cash no longer exists, nobody will be able to buy or sell without the ID. It will be referred to as the mark of the beast.
      http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/22/tech/main631231.shtml
      Vending machines at work and the ticket booth at the local cinema has this up and running now. It is NOT Paypal. Paypal will be toast unless they change.

      --
      The truth shall set you free!
    3. Re:I hope not... by John.P.Jones · · Score: 1

      The only way this would happen is if the phone uses NFC and they just have to swipe the phone to a reader without 'unlocking' the device or navigating windows. The communications would then automatically agree on the loyalty card discount and payment info without user interaction. The screen at the reader would then show a simple confirm or deny dialog (no signature, the phone will provide a digital signature) and a receipt will be sent to the phone.

    4. Re:I hope not... by hedwards · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing the phone, mainly because as people age the technological knowledge tends to increase. There's still a deficit, but my grandmother can do far more with a computer than your average person could 20 years ago.

    5. Re:I hope not... by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Slashdot gets tons of stories about "new tech almost here, old tech declared to be dead". I have not yet quite figured out if this is because there are some naive technophiles writing blogs because they feel the need to spew words, or if this is astroturfing by the companies trying to promote their not-quite-there products?

    6. Re:I hope not... by spasm · · Score: 1

      And her phone will also give the scanner both her loyalty card number and the five coupons she 'clipped' by photographing the barcode with her camera phone, speeding up the entire process. Of course, she'll still hold up the line by assuming the clerk's "how are you today?" was meant literally and giving a five minute disquisition on her lumbago.

    7. Re:I hope not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you think she'll be faster pulling out a piece of plastic, or navigating through her mobile phone from menu to menu to app to option? And the same again if she's paying by credit card.

      Either one sounds better than waiting for her to write a godamm check!

      First she waits until the cashier tells her the total. Then she gets out her checkbook. Then she looks for a pen. Then she writes it out. The cashier and other customers have all been waiting for at least 3 minutes. But wait there's more. She won't hand the check to the cashier until she has recorded it in her checkbook. OK, finally she hands it over. Then the cashier does his/her thing with it and gives the old lady her receipt. The old lady wants to file the receipt away in just the right spot in her checkbook and then put away the checkbook in just the right spot in her purse. She won't move out of the way until she is done, even though by now the cashier has rung up the next customer's stuff. The next customer can't even get to the pin pad because the old lady is still standing there screwing around with her checkbook.

      I could care less if people are using cash, cards, iPhones, or whatever......but will somebody for fucks sake put an end to writing checks at retail stores!!!!

    8. Re:I hope not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By then, her phone will know she's in the store and know when she's about to pay for something by NFC with the register. The phone will simply come up with a "do you want to pay for these items", and show her a picture of each of them.

      I'm more concerned about people too poor to have a mobile device and what they do when people start giving them sideways looks for trying to pay with cash or a card.

      "We're sorry ma'am, we don't take plastic anymore, don't you have something with a chip in it?"
      "Yeah, my shoulder".

    9. Re:I hope not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I work for a European banking software house, and buddy, you couldn't be more wrong if you tried. We're betting the house on this technology going large, and from the in-house previews, I can tell you, this is sweet. Full financial management on your iPad on Android device, free.
      Our customer banks are already using Near Field Communications, and grandma doesn't even need to take her purse out of her bag and rummage around for her wallet and coins. Her phone WILL PROMPT HER for the "go" code, and it will be MUCH faster than some pseudo-geek paging through his antiquated app library. You really should read up a little and get with the program, sharky. As for giving cash, pffft - your niece is a generation ahead of you already, and she'll happily accept an e-transfer direct to her account, just like she gets her pocket money from her Mom & Dad.
      http://www.telecomtv.com/go/?ct=1&cid=47829&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10 - NFC payments will hit $670 BILLION in 4 years - you, my dear friend, are a dinosaur. Over here in Europe, we already have "walk through" checkouts - we've scanned everything before we get to the check-out, packed our goods in our own bags, put the scanner in the receptacle on the way out and wave the mobile phone to pay.
      Perhaps you wizards in the US will be using cash a lot longer than the rest of us, given your evangelicals fear of 666 branding, but you'll catch up eventually.
      Cashless society ? I barely see cash at all from one week to the next.

    10. Re:I hope not... by Boawk · · Score: 1

      And there's few things more enjoyable than giving real cash to a little niece or nephew.

      Give them a gift card to Bed Bath & Beyond

    11. Re:I hope not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Credit/debit payments are gaining a foothold, but it's going to be a loooooong time until we even consider a cashless society.

      This is like the prediction in the 80s that by now we'd be a completely paperless society. Any idiot who says that has evidently never had to deal with government on any level. To paraphrase the old EF Hutton commercials: "money talks, people listen." I still trust cash more than my debit or credit cards.

  21. "It's the future!" by BK425 · · Score: 1

    Yes, and a jetpack in every domehome.

  22. I think the mob will have a thing or two to say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How does PayPal propose that I buy my illicit drugs and other contraband?

  23. Riiiiiiiiight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...one can safely assume that the days of carrying a wallet will soon end"

    how, exactly, do _you_ "safely assume" this?

    "PayPal believes that by the year 2015, no one will be carrying a wallet anymore"

    PayPal believes it?! well then it _must_ be true. I mean, if paypal believes it, then certainly NO ONE can doubt that Paypal/e-payments are a surefire, secure, rock-solid replacement for one's old timey personal cash-monies-carrying means -- especially those currently 40+ years of age, they'll just eat this up. /saracsm

    Pure conjecture. Yes, the trend is toward increased e-payments -- nobody doubts that. But to claim that everyone will leave their wallet at home within the next 4 years?!

    how the HELL does this crap make it past the editors? /rant

    1. Re:Riiiiiiiiight by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Paypal is right. I hardly ever carry a wallet. I just put it in a device called a back pocket (conveniently built into my pants), and the wallet is with me wherever I go. The times I need to pay someone while not wearing pants is nigh on infinitesimal.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  24. They have been saying that since the 70's by bobjr94 · · Score: 1

    Great for card processors who get money from every transaction, bad for businesses especially smaller ones with a high volume but low $ transactions (like coffee places)

    1. Re:They have been saying that since the 70's by geekoid · · Score: 1

      It just becomes a sunk cost. Basically your coffee will be 25 cents more, regardless of how you pay.

      In some places, the cost is already sunk into the price.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  25. Economy == Wallet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The end... by 2015?

    At the rate things are going, they may be right!

  26. I dont carry my money by floydman · · Score: 1

    in a wallet, and I dont have a wallet.
    I must be from the future, where ppl carry dont have wallets.

    I am sry, but what kind of forecast is this!!

    --
    The lunatic is in my head
    1. Re:I dont carry my money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you stick it up your arse?

    2. Re:I dont carry my money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoosh!

    3. Re:I dont carry my money by smellotron · · Score: 1

      floydman: I must be from the future, where ppl carry dont have wallets.
      floydman: I am sry, but what kind of forecast is this!!

      Captain: What you say !!
      CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.

  27. Re: Learn how to post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is full of shit!

    Sentence fragments are

  28. Good thing by pjbgravely · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's a good thing I use a money clip then. I will never have anything to do with Paypal, in fact I no longer buy anything on ebay becouse everything seems to be Paypal only.

    --
    Star Trek, there maybe hope.
    1. Re:Good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you keep the big bills on the outside?

  29. PayPal predicts by taustin · · Score: 2

    That PayPal will become the indispensable service without which, you will die, your children will be eaten by wild animals, and hellfire will rain down from the heavens.

    Are they planning an IPO or something?

    1. Re:PayPal predicts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That PayPal will become the indispensable service without which, you will die, your children will be eaten by wild animals, and hellfire will rain down from the heavens.

      That's not really enough to convince me to trust PayPal with my money.

    2. Re:PayPal predicts by jkmartin · · Score: 1

      Paypal is entirely owned by eBay...which perfectly explains why they behave like bastards.

  30. In other news... by BinarySolo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maker of a technology predicts said technology will become ubiquitous.

    1. Re:In other news... by mevets · · Score: 1

      Amazing, isn't it. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would have been if they paid for a comprehensive study and it showed the opposite? It would be, like, so I guess we don't have much of a future in this line of business.....

      That is one of the efficiencies of business - they knew the risk of a study giving the wrong result; so they saved money on studying the issue and went with a simple marketing campaign.

    2. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll bet thousands of companies have created self-interested studies and received bad news as a result. I'll further bet that 99.999% of those studies were then shelved and never seen or heard from again.

      But really, how dumb is it to forecast that cash/wallets are finished? And (surprise!) PayPal is a huge winner as a result! PayPal is already a big success and I'll bet they are only a fraction of the monetary system. Payment systems are everywhere and a company only has to capture a relatively small share in order to be very successful. Why get greedy/stupid and declare that the near future is 100% electronic? Does anyone at PayPal really believe that nonsense?

      Has this sector learned nothing from the micropayments fiasco? Among others?

  31. I'm doubting it by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

    Wallets predict the end of PayPal by Square (and any other credit card processors who make it easier to accept credit cards than deal with PayPal's nightmareishness).

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  32. Wallet believes.. by tompaulco · · Score: 2

    Wallet believes that by the year 2015, no one will be using Paypal anymore.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    1. Re:Wallet believes.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the much more likelier thing to happen, paypal is a fucking criminal organization.

  33. Bull by BlueCoder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Never Gonna Happen

    The illegal market depends on cash too much. If they took away cash people would start carrying around platinum, gold, silver and copper coins again as well as having funds deposited in foreign currency and the US government won't let that happen. China will go paperless long before the US does.

    1. Re:Bull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never mind criminals... what about the impoverished?
      A large minority of the North American population doesn't have access to the kind of technology required for them to switch to paperless transactions.
      Paper money is usable by all, regardless of means... everyone from the CEOs of major corporations down to the homeless dumpster divers. Electronic transactions may be fully adopted by some, but there are a lot of people for whom it isn't even an option.

    2. Re:Bull by Bieeanda · · Score: 1

      Insert joke about bitcoins here.

    3. Re:Bull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Insert joke about bitcoins here.

      Wife: Honey come to bed and make love to me!
      Husband: No, I'm gay and I like to Mt Gox.

      (as seen on bitcoin forum)

    4. Re:Bull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's one hell of a claim, Blue. What makes you believe that?

    5. Re:Bull by bmajik · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The size of the illegal market will also continue to increase, as more things will become illegal.

      But heck, I like using cash when I'm _not_ doing anything knowingly illegal. Sometimes you just want to fork over some money and be anonymous. No, I don't want you to add this item to my profile. No, I don't want to sign anything. No, I don't want to transfer enough of my identity to you that you can buy things "on my behalf" after your shfit ends. No, you can't have my phone number. No, you can't have my zip code. No, I don't have email. Give me my fucking $item and stop asking questions.

      --
      My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
    6. Re:Bull by bledri · · Score: 1

      Never mind criminals... what about the impoverished?

      Modern (un)civilized rhetoric would have me believe: it is their own damn fault, they probably are criminals anyway, and anyone that thinks otherwise is a pinko commie - or worse, a socialist.

      --
      Some privacy policy Slashdot.
  34. No, not even close. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A wallet is used for more that just money and credit cards. There are driver licenses, club cards, insurance cards, even pictures.

    In the sprit of the article, lets keep to the money theme:

    1. Most people do NOT have a smart phone.
    2. In 2015 there will still be billions of people worldwide without computers, bank accounts, credit cards, or smart phones. Or wallets or pockets for the wallets. Cash is king.
    3. Cash will not disappear by 2015.
    4. As a world traveler I cannot consolidate to a single credit card that is accepted in all places and by all ATMs. There are other problems that have to be fixed first.
    5. Local governments and policy makers are too slow. Not every country can adapt by 2015.
    6. Local infrastructure takes too long to change.
    7. The first security breach will set it back years.
    8. Competing standards. See #4 for an example.
    9. Mobile roaming charges too expensive or unavailable.
    10. I cannot live without cash. I am close, but cash as a backup, esp. when traveling worldwide is a very good backup have. Years after the credit/bank/debit card, cash is still used in every country. Until you can eliminate cash, you'll never lose the wallet.

  35. Where will I keep my ID? by wjcofkc · · Score: 1

    Sorry officer, my drivers license is in the cloud which is currently undergoing an unscheduled upgrade. As soon as I get an email that it's available again, I will be sure to let you know.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
  36. Not as long as people are people. by copponex · · Score: 2

    You can't buy sex or drugs and keep it a secret without cash. Good luck.

    1. Re:Not as long as people are people. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Because that worked so well for Eliot Spitzer? (New York politician who was caught with a prostitute because he kept making 'unusual' ATM withdrawals)

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:Not as long as people are people. by bledri · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately some people will consider that incentive to do away with physical money. On the plus side, rumor has it that sex can be bought with drugs and vice versa.

      --
      Some privacy policy Slashdot.
    3. Re:Not as long as people are people. by houghi · · Score: 1

      Sure you can. But only in those places where it is legal.
      So perhaps what he is saying is that sex and drugs will be legal by 2015.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:Not as long as people are people. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      saw on the news pimps now accepting credit cards in major metropolitan areas. true story.

    5. Re:Not as long as people are people. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, you can buy sex and illegal drugs even today without cash. But it will cost you more. The place will need to setup some sort of store front in-order to offer the goods and services it provides, which is more over head then say a man or women waiting on the street. Hell, I've seen madams on the TV News talk about how businessmen charge it as an entertainment expense. So even if we go cashless people will still fill their vices. Of course when a place gets raided by the police they'll look into who was spending money there. But it is impossible to prove that you really did anything illegal just because you gave 400 dollar tip to some lady.

  37. TFA is trolling us! by munozdj · · Score: 1

    Beware! On behalf of everyone I know, I say: Yeah, right.... There's nothing to see here, move along

    --
    Democracy: Crowdsourcing a country near you
  38. That is absolutely retarded. by The+Hatchet · · Score: 1

    Yea, because everyone has a mobile phone that has mobile payment application abilities, and nobody carries their drivers licence, library card, business cards, insurance cards, personal photos, etc. Dumbasses.

    --
    Where is the mod rating for "scary"? Also, ...
    1. Re:That is absolutely retarded. by slackzilly · · Score: 1

      To pay for your purchase send SMS with the word PAY followed by amount to XXXX

      --
      - "If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we as a togetherness can create."
    2. Re:That is absolutely retarded. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right, because things like driver's licenses, photos, and membership cards can't be stored electronically.

      Dumbass.

    3. Re:That is absolutely retarded. by The+Hatchet · · Score: 1

      As if that works for pay as you go phones. It doesn't, not well or consistently.

      --
      Where is the mod rating for "scary"? Also, ...
  39. One word. by PPH · · Score: 1

    Condoms.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:One word. by mat+catastrophe · · Score: 1

      Came here to post this. Good thinking.

      --
      sig not found
    2. Re:One word. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now I know *not* to have sex with you. :)

    3. Re:One word. by Mishotaki · · Score: 1

      OH NO! without wallets, we'll be stuck having children and STDs!!!

  40. How myopic by geekoid · · Score: 1

    I still need my DL.
    That said, I would love to only need it for that. In fact, I would love to not need a wallet at all and have it all in my smart phones.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  41. 2016: The Return Of The Wallet by cmholm · · Score: 1

    Given the existing weak links in the electronic retail financial chain, and the added weak link of a cell phone, I suspect wallets will make a big come back after a goodly fraction of the mobile payment system users get their checking account cleaned out and/or their debit account treated as someone else's personal piggybank.

    --
    Luke, help me take this mask off ... Just for once, let me butterfly kiss you with my own eyes.
    1. Re:2016: The Return Of The Wallet by stinerman · · Score: 1

      Or, you know, the fact that many elderly folks don't have a cell phone and don't want a cell phone. Grandma stinerman isn't going to one day wake up on Jan 1, 2005 and start paying her grocery bill by iPhone.

  42. The funny thing about the mobile wallet by jader3rd · · Score: 1

    What makes me smirk every time I hear the phrase "mobile wallet" and how it's new and revolutionary, is the fact that my wallet currently is mobile. My wallet is smaller than my smart phone and goes with my everywhere. My wallet and has never been not mobile. (Appologies for the double negative)

    1. Re:The funny thing about the mobile wallet by prefec2 · · Score: 1

      And your wallet never ran out of electricity. And it worked in an elevator or some other place with now cell phone coverage. And it is secure and your trades are not monitored. No one is sending you an advertisement for a dentist after buying candy twenty times in a row.

  43. But cash is kinda useful by 91degrees · · Score: 1

    handing over a handful of notes is really quite efficient. You don't need any other technology or network connection or anything, don't need to type anything in, and the "hacks" or nearest equivalent (picking pockets, and so on) are well understood and so can be guarded against easily.

  44. What identity does a phone have? by Sipper · · Score: 1

    A lot of people drive, and if you do then you have to carry your Drivers License and vehicle Registration.
    It's also a darn good idea to carry your health insurance card in case you're injured and unable to respond.
    If you're an Amateur Radio operator, you're supposed to carry your Ham license with you.
    And then there's credit cards, business cards, etc.
    Sadly, I still think we need a wallet and/or a purse.

    Considering the technology, paying by phone is a bit crazy because there's no way to verify the owner. A credit card has a signature on it, and some come with a photo on them. What do you get on the phone? If there's no way to even vaguely catch fraud and identity theft, then how is paying by Phone supposed to become ubiquitous? Is FRAUD also supposed to become ubiquitous?

    Nothing in the story covers this. Until someone comes up with a solution for this, I'm not even vaguely interested in Payment By Phone.

  45. 2015? Who carries one now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All I carry around is a credit card & a bit of cash. Maybe a work ID too. Driver's licence stays in the bike jacket. Haven't had a wallet for over 20 years.

    What the hell do all your George Costanza wanna-be types put in there anyway?

  46. Uh-oh! by John+Pfeiffer · · Score: 1

    So I have 4 years to buy a cellphone, huh? D: It's a good thing I don't use my wallet for identification or anything!

    --

    Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
  47. Um... by AngryDeuce · · Score: 1

    I haven't carried a wallet in 10 years. Money clip is all you need, really. What do you need besides your license and a couple credit cards? Why carry all that crap around?

    1. Re:Um... by green1 · · Score: 1

      In my wallet I have the following:
      -cash (many places accept no substitute, and I refuse to pay a middleman to process the payment)
      -cheques (the easiest, and cheapest, way to give a private individual more cash than you have on you at any given time)
      -driver's license (in addition to allowing me to drive, it is used as ID to pick up parcels or prescriptions, prove my age, etc)
      -vehicle registration (where I live it's a bad idea to leave it in the vehicle, because simply signing the back of it states that you have sold the vehicle to whoever is holding on to it, I'd rather that if someone steals my car, they don't automatically have a piece of paper that states I sold it to them!)
      -credit card (more convenient than cash, and many places won't discount cash, additionally there are places that don't take cash, especially online)
      -debit card (to get more cash when I need it)
      -vehicle breakdown coverage card (if they send a tow truck they won't accept anything other than the real card, but they'll accept if for any vehicle I happen to be in, even if not mine, so better to have it with me, than in my car)
      -health care card (if I'm injured the hospital will need this, as will an ambulance)
      -drug plan card (I could leave this one at home and only bring it to the store when I need to get a prescription filled, but that guarantees I will forget it and not have it when I need it)
      -loyalty cards for 2 supermarket chains, a fast food place, and a fuel station (I hate these things, but as long as they charge me extra for not having them I guess I better have them (there are 4 more of these that I don't carry because I know those stores will accept my phone number in lieu of the physical card))
      -2 radio licenses (theoretically I must have these on my person to operate amateur radio, or air band radios... in practice I could probably not carry these, but you never really know do you... just like the driver's license I guess, I've never been asked to show it while driving, but I bet the cops wouldn't be too happy if I didn't have it with me when I got pulled over!)
      -EMS practice permits (a total of 3 cards that I need to carry when working on an ambulance to prove I'm certified to do so)
      -business cards (easiest way to give someone all your contact info)
      -spare vehicle key (I've watched too many of my friends lock their keys in their car and be sorry...)

      Other cards that I sometimes carry:
      - power boat operators card (like a driver's license, but for power boats, generally left at home unless I'm expecting to drive a boat)
      - scuba diver certification (needed to rent scuba gear, participate in scuba tours/charters/events, generally left at home unless I'm expecting to go diving)
      - SIN card (government issued number used for taxes... but also used for all sorts of other forms such as employment info, pensions, health insurance, etc. Usually they only need the number off it which I've memorized, but sometimes you need the physical card such as when it is used as an additional form of ID)
      - Telecommunication Journeyman certificate (theoretically I need to carry this at all times when working in the telecom field, but I have never even heard of anyone being asked to present it, so I don't bother except when starting a new job)

      I could shrink this down a bit, but it's a risk, any card I don't have when I need it is a real pain. sometimes when going out in the evenings I'll carry a minimal wallet that includes only cash, credit card, driver's license, vehicle registration, vehicle breakdown coverage, and health care card. but even that is enough to justify a wallet.

      As for what the original article is about... not a chance until they allow me to do so without paying the currently insane fees associated with phone based payment systems.

  48. It's not just criminals by grizdog · · Score: 1

    Criminals will not want to use e-money, but I think a lot of people will get creeped out when they buy something, and 10 seconds later they are texted a coupon for a store next door, for something they were Googling about last week. Don't get me wrong - some people will absolutely love that. But not everyone will. I wouldn't, which is why I intend to keep carrying cash.

  49. One can safely assume this? by flimflammer · · Score: 0

    Yeah, the one who wrote the article. Everyone else has some goddamn sense.

  50. a bitch by haxwk · · Score: 1

    Subject headlines are

  51. LOL by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 1

    Wishful thinking is the driving force of e-commerce.

  52. PayPal is a perfect example. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    A perfect example of corruption on par with employees of Federal Reseve System. Both of them advocate the People from having full value of their currency in the form of a monetised Specie of needed metal like silver or even copper or aluminum as what Americans should start on earliest if unable to secure the more precious decorative alloys.

    The only primary reason the European Union is failing is that charter is corrupt to liquidate assets rather than restore full faith and credit with the actual currency "basket." If US domestic "dollars" were used more as an secondary and otherwise inferior method of "adjusting" a trade of actual product, and thereby that currency was only used to pad that trading, then the tax revenue would fall because only US domestic "dollars" are the 2-sided private credit that is exposing Americans to taxation.

    You need to think to yourself when something becomes taxable, and why US domestic "dollars" are being treated as a government-sanctioned permit that allows you to conditionally own property in a inferior title rather than Allodium fee simple of an original trade of value for value. It's that the corruption stems from the verry offices of trust where taxes are appraised to that corrupt currency that is otherwise obsolete when the People re-discover House Joint Resolution 192 to dis-charge their liabilities using a a Congress-sanctioned way-Bill. Still, the corruption remains in that you are ever elevated to the pervue of such corrupt franchising institution that ploys all walks of death onto anyone, including it's first fraud in creating their alter-ego Birth Certificate as though a contract signed by a child unable who is unable to object because they are only minutes of age outside the womb. That Birth Certificate fraud has the pressing of American Banknote Company all over it, and the more the government burns the Bill of Rights is evidence the more that the people at large should burn their Birth Certificates: if you are expected to pay the National Debt without the Bill of Rights present then you should burn the Birth Certificate, meanwhile the Public Debt sky-rockets to render dormant and fruitless the several States outside of America and the United States.

    Because we all know that uis how countries are destroyed: by recognizing their sole monetary unit of value and not using it until the officers are unable to revolve their book-keeping. In not using lawful money, then the several States are crippled and that is how the United States has introduced it's overlay over America by first destroying the lawful banking of US Notes in allowing the flood of Federal Reserve Notes to control the markets.

    1. Re:PayPal is a perfect example. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... I can't find the bel air...

    2. Re:PayPal is a perfect example. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Edit? how is this post considered legible or cogent?

  53. Penny, Dollar Bill, Checks, etc... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are these the same people that keep predicting the end of the penny, dollar bills, checks and just about everything else other than their method of payment?

    Consider the source. PayPal makes more money each time someone decides to not use the systems that are already in place and seem to work well. The market obviously likes the current ways, because they have been trying to get rid of the penny since the 70s and it's still here.

  54. I can't believe that no one pointed this out yet. by cualexander · · Score: 1

    Cash doesn't require batteries! You can have all the money in the world sitting on a website, but when the phone goes dead, guess what, so do you chances of paying with Paypal mobile app. At least your debit card can't go dead. I don't want to be standing on the side of the road somewhere, trying to beg people for a charge so I can pay the tow truck company. No thanks. You are pretty much SOL at that point.

  55. yeah, but.. by orange47 · · Score: 1

    by 2015 mobile phones will be small enough to carry in wallets..

  56. Use Paypal But Wash Afterwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which will be bad for the phone. So I'll stick with a wallet.

  57. ...and the end of wikileaks by nightcats · · Score: 1

    Paypal says wikileaks should be gone even earlier than that!

    --
    Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
  58. My wallet doesn't require batteries by HockeyPuck · · Score: 1

    My credit card and cash don't require internet access nor batteries to work.

    1. Re:My wallet doesn't require batteries by John+Hasler · · Score: 1

      The next generation of fifties will have GPS and require wireless to report their locations to the mint.

      --
      Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  59. Nuh uh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll bet anyone at PayPal five hundred dollars that they are wrong.

    (I realize that this is an empty threat coming from an anonymous coward :/)

  60. Then you get arrested by IBitOBear · · Score: 1

    for driving without a charged battery?

    And the state is going to issue you your "smart device" and coincidentally reserve the right to regularly download everything on it to their servers?

    And the state is going to supply homeless people with electricity and chargers for their devices because they also enforce "no existing in public without a state-issued ID" laws.

    And the state is going to mandate DRM in all those smart devices so that nobody can display a "fake ID".

    And its _all_ going to be universally in place in three years....

    right....

    --
    Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
    --"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
  61. Oblig... by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Has Netcraft confirmed this?

  62. Brother, can you charge my battery? by cohomology · · Score: 1

    I may look like a bum, but I'm really a wealthy man. It's just that my battery ran down, and I have no way to get my money. Please, please help me.

    More seriously, I bicycle to places with no cell phone service all the time. I am not going to rely on online services for everything.

    --
    Don't mess with The Phone Company. Piss them off and you'll be using two tin cans and a piece of string.
  63. Wishful Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? by RazorSharp · · Score: 1

    Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that PayPal hopes nobody will carry a wallet by 2015.

    Unless pot is legal in 2015, I'll still need cash.

    --
    "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
    1. Re:Wishful Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some California dispensaries actually have ATM machines in them.

      Fact.

      Only a fool would use one, but they are there. (Maybe its an IQ test in disguise?)

  64. You still need to carry around your ID by sandytaru · · Score: 1

    Until they make some means of verifying ID via your iPhone, a wallet still has a place in anyone's pocket. My 7 year old Mythware wallet, which proclaims, "Anime: Crack is Cheaper" is a trooper and I won't be getting rid of it until it disintegrates.

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
  65. Anonymous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As long as there is a need for anonymity, cash will remain.

    1. Re:Anonymous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In-store camera combined with a scanner that reads the serial # of the bills.

      Goodbye anony-cash.

  66. "by the year 2015, no one will carry a wallet" by John+Hasler · · Score: 1

    I expect to live longer than that.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  67. Re:All the easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But if teh Joos already control all the banks, why would they need this?

    *racist head asplodes*

  68. What a dumb prediction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a) The wallet also holds driver's license, receipts and (theoretically for some slashdotters) condoms and the like.

              b) Credit cards already exist, but are invariably slower, less convenient, and of course there are credit card fees that cash does not have. Why would people give up both cash and credit cards in 4 years to use some nebulous mobile payment method? Also, I'm *SURE* this'll be another one of those "Oh, it's RF you don't even have to touch it!" things -- Do Not Want. I won't have money automatically hoovered without some kind of physical action, and I think a lot of people will agree with this.

  69. And I predict... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wallets will become obsolete when BitCoin becomes the one global currency.

  70. No way by LineGrunt · · Score: 1

    "Cash is king."

  71. Sweat! by Ada_Rules · · Score: 1

    I don't want to carry a wallet. There is no room for it in my flying car. Now, let be go out to the warehouse out back and see if I can replace some tubes in my massive computer.

    --
    --- Liberty in our Lifetime
  72. Re:I can't believe that no one pointed this out ye by John+Hasler · · Score: 1

    > Cash doesn't require batteries!

    Yet. The Treasury has plans...

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  73. Here is how it is going to work by rickkw · · Score: 1

    At the store checkout, stick out your back of your palm to the cashier. The cashier stamps your hand, and you take the goods. Next time you go to a bank, pay the bank and the bank teller rubs off the stamp on your hand. Transaction complete. No wallets required.

  74. end of the bitcoin wallet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    end of the bitcoin wallet? huh?

  75. News analysis ... by hey! · · Score: 1

    Reading between the lines, I'd say PayPal has plans to develop a digital condom.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:News analysis ... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      Reading between the lines, I'd say PayPal has plans to develop a digital condom.

      heh - they are already screwing their customers....

      (obvious?)

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  76. hey paypal by royallthefourth · · Score: 0

    go fuck yourself

  77. Plus, in America.... by sgt_doom · · Score: 1

    Greece, Iceland, Slovakia, Spain, and a number of other countries, millions no longer need to carry a wallet, since they no longer have any cash.

  78. I will still carry a wallet! by KreAture · · Score: 1

    To keep my e-banking card in.

  79. Go figure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When your only tool is a hamer (or are the hammer yourself), all of your problems look like nails.

  80. Re:P****l. by hedwards · · Score: 2

    No, it should be P****l. Shit is perfectly fine though.

  81. I'm already there... In a way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I already don't use a wallet. But I don't use paypal (except in a few instances of buying something online where it is the only option), and I don't use my cell phone either. I just never saw the benefit of putting all of my stuff in one conveniently pickpocketed place. My pants have many pockets, why not use them all? :P

  82. Fuck paypal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of course paypal would love this as they charge fees everytime you transact, not to mention just decide to confiscate your money for whatever reason they deem fit. I'll hold onto my property, including my money, you can't trust banks, the government, and certainly not paypal.

  83. Cash... by bobdotorg · · Score: 1

    ... is anonymity.

    And won't be going away any time soon.

    --
    __ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
    1. Re:Cash... by Lazy+Jones · · Score: 1

      And won't be going away any time soon.

      It's going away one little bit at a time, so we won't notice until it's too late. Can you still buy a prepaid phone where you live and use it without registering with your real name?
      Cash withdrawals and deposits have been severely limited in the last couple of years in the EU (money laundering must be a new phenomenon!), the noose will be tightened until you are required to pay with a card / mobile phone for any amount over XX EUR/USD and one day that XX will be 0...

      --
      "I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
  84. They claim to not be responsible for your balence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's only in Europe. They still aren't a bank in the USA, as the article you linked points out.

    According to their newly updated TOS, they are not a bank but are a E-money transactor and therefore cannot be held responsible for the balance of your account.

    "PayPal hat eine Luxemburger Banklizenz im Sinne des Artikels 2 des Gesetzes vom 5. April 1993 über das Kreditwesen. Damit unterstehen wir der Luxemburger Bankenaufsicht, der Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier.

    Die Hauptgeschäftstätigkeit von PayPal liegt in der Ausgabe von E-Geld und den mit der Ausgabe von E-Geld eng verbundenen Leistungen. Unser Service stellt insbesondere keine Einlagen- oder Anlagendienstleistung im Sinne des oben genannten Kreditwesengesetzes dar. Das bedeutet für Sie: Ein Guthaben auf Ihrem PayPal-Konto ist daher nicht durch das Luxemburger Einlagensicherungssystem der Association pour la Garantie des Dépôts Luxembourg (AGDL) geschützt."

  85. Re:Not in other Countries by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    I've heard of Americans thinking that American laws apply all over the world, but now Europeans laws?

    In Australia they aren't covered by the same rules and regulations as banks, and there are several banks which flat out refuse to offer them direct debit facilities to customer accounts for this reason.

    Paypal is not a bank everywhere.

  86. Another prediction: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    By 2015 we'll all be driving flying cars, too.

  87. Fuck PayPal by ronmon · · Score: 1

    and the eBay they rode in on. I wouldn't do business with either of those cock suckers.

  88. as long as there are strip clubs by buybuydandavis · · Score: 1

    There will be wallets. Or at least money clips.

  89. Re:Not in other Countries by Fnord666 · · Score: 1

    Paypal is not a bank everywhere.

    In my opinion Paypal is not a bank anywhere. At best they have managed to play one in the EU.

    --
    'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
  90. Warning! Listen please. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Paypal has taken the side of a fraudulant buyer against the position of an ethical seller and closed your account you cannot have a wallet.

    That is not within civil rights. There is no recourse. There is no PAYPAL policy to deal with things even THEY AGREE IS UNFAIR.

    no. I would literally rather have an Apple or Disney wallet than a Paypal wallet. That is MY stretch.

  91. It's all about control by detritus. · · Score: 1

    Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal all have suspended payments to Wikileaks, and all would love to be the middle-man between your transactions.

    Just wait until you no longer have a choice in the matter.

  92. Nope, Cash is King by PhrstBrn · · Score: 1

    Nope, cash is king, and will always be king for me. I've had too many cards "flagged" for "suspicious activity" and locked when I try to use it. And by suspicious, I mean buying groceries at the same place I've always bought groceries for the past 5 years (this has happened to more more than once on multiple cards).

    After dealing with that bullshit twice a month for a year, I cancelled my cards and just bring cash. Nobody ever turns down cash.

  93. one can safely assume by epine · · Score: 1

    ... that slashdot has jumped the editorial shark

    Seriously, what's the bigram troll score on the word pair "safely assume", not even counting the contribution of "Paypal" in tilting the phrase context.

    And then, if you progress to lexical data mining, where does "Paypal" wind up in the lexical activation map? Somewhere near "Taxjoy" if you ask me.

    Taxjoy safely predicts the end of US government debt by 2015. We could make the taxation process even more convenient than Paypal by remitting 100% of earned income. After all, convenience is the only criteria in matters of wealth.

  94. I predict the end of PayPal by 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A company which doesn't screw customers will eat Paypal's lunch.

    Just you wait and see.

  95. Cash is still king by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My brick and mortar business went CASH only a year ago now I save over 90,000 a year in fee's to all the banks and exchanges. It's catchy watch what happens.......

  96. Not dependable enough by tukang · · Score: 1

    Do I really want to be stranded w/o cash just because I forgot to charge my battery or the phone stops working for some other reason? Credit cards work almost 100% of the time because even if they doesn't swipe, most places still have the ability to manually enter the numbers.

  97. Cashless will never happen by saxoholic · · Score: 1

    Arguments about using your wallet for things besides cash and credit cards aside, the bottom line is we will always need cash because you can't bribe a senator or judge from a medium that can be traced.

    1. Re:Cashless will never happen by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      The untraceable electronic economy already exists. But there is always the next level above that, the biggest organized crime cartel with the lawmakers and judges in their pockets is the banking cartel, heinously evil in their actions but traceable and by definition legal.

    2. Re:Cashless will never happen by green1 · · Score: 1

      Why not? Big industry does it all the time, the trick is manipulating the laws so that the bribes don't need to be reported to anyone and you're home free...

  98. My 2015 prediction: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another idiotic prediction from the people at paypal by 2015.

  99. Why go that far? by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 2

    I live in the San Francisco Peninsula, within two blocks of a Vietnamese restaurant and a Japanese take-out place that take cash only. There's also plenty of restaurants that refuse to take credit cards for bills under either $15 or $20.

  100. that is illegal by MadMaverick9 · · Score: 1
    Legal tender

    personal cheques, credit cards, debit cards and similar non-cash methods of payment are not usually legal tender. Coins and notes are usually defined as legal tender. Some jurisdictions may forbid or restrict payment made other than by legal tender.

    what paypal is trying to do, is exactly the same what shops and businesses in the netherlands and finland are doing by not accepting the 1 eurocent coin.

    that is illegal. coins and notes are defined as legal tender. businesses and shops are legally bound to accept these.

    the only exception are large bank notes. business and shops have to accept everything else - starting with the 1 eurocent coin.

    1. Re:that is illegal by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Most money in the world is electronic, your "legal tender" is but one form of money and a small percent of it at that.

    2. Re:that is illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It may show up as electronic, but you can still get cash for those accounts..

  101. Hell no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've got a fairly new one. It's good till 2020 or so.

  102. The future we've all been waiting for! by Rizimar · · Score: 5, Funny

    It appears that you're trying to spend your money to buy a Snickers from this PayPal vending machine. Unfortunately, we've recently detected someone trying to hack into your account. Please prove that you're you by tying PayPal to your bank account, and then transfer $50 to us which we will refund in your PayPal account.

    It appears that you're trying to purchase a new t-shirt at the PayPal store. While you've tied your bank account to us, we've recently detected someone trying to hack into your account. Please prove that you're you by giving us your social security number which we won't use for anything other than your identification. We swear.

    It appears that you're not spending any money with your PayPal app on your phone today. We have detected that you may be deceased. Please prove that you're still alive by calling our toll-free 1-800 number from 9 to 5 PM Central. But only after transferring $50 from your bank account to us, which we'll refund in your PayPal account.

    1. Re:The future we've all been waiting for! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Parent speaks with as much truth as humour. After moving to China, half the websites I use locked my accounts because of "hacking" fears, requiring me to call some very long distance number to unlock many of them.

    2. Re:The future we've all been waiting for! by Rizimar · · Score: 1

      I've used PayPal to sell CDs online. I'd frequently get notifications of hack attempts, but it really seemed like a ploy to get more information/money from me to PayPal. They'd never go into any sort of detail about these alleged hacks and then would freeze my account until I jumped through some narrow hoops.

      They always give you options, too, and limit them with each successive "hack". So for one instance, they will let you either tie your bank account to them and send them money, give some personal details about yourself, or give them a phone call. If you give them a call, the next attempt will either have you send them money or give your information.

  103. Great Scott! by Questarian · · Score: 1

    The end of wallets?...in the future?...Is this like some sort of fanboy thing to explains why there's no pockets in Star Trek?

  104. I worry about that by LongearedBat · · Score: 1

    With that, couldn't a scammer walk anonymously though a crowd with a portable payment scanner, automatically charging people for small amounts that would be below a "pay without confirmation" threshold? Those little payments could add up pretty quickly.

  105. Carry a tablet by tepples · · Score: 1

    Where do people ordinarily carry a tablet computing appliance or netbook if not in a purse or man-purse?

    1. Re:Carry a tablet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have this great idea, I'm gonna call it backpack.

    2. Re:Carry a tablet by tepples · · Score: 1

      If a man-bag gets you called metro- or even homosexual, a backpack will get you called a student.

  106. Too soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All these predictions always have dates that are ridiculously too soon. Self-driving cars by 2018? No wallets by 2015? Come on.

    As far as I can remember, I have carried three wallets in my life. My last one went for 15 years before it fell apart. I just replaced it. Even if they stop selling wallets tomorrow, I'm sure I will still be carrying my *current* wallet in 2025.

  107. Why should I believe PayPal? by pjfontillas · · Score: 1

    Their prediction of the wallet going away is completely unbiased. Just kidding! On top of all the useful comments here about the uses of wallets and all things related I certainly can't help but think the well is poisoned. Let me demonstrate... let's say I know someone named Kevin, who downloads music, movies, and games. If he could download a car he would do it. If he told me: "As new technology emerges, one can safely assume that the days of getting caught for downloading will soon end. In fact, I believe that by the year 2015, no one will be paying for music, movies, or games. Instead, pirates will be taking over." I would be hard pressed to believe him.

    --
    Life. Is. Good.
  108. I don't think eBay wants to unload PayPal by tepples · · Score: 1

    Are [PayPal] planning an IPO or something?

    Do you mean is PayPal part of a well-known publicly traded entity? Yes. PayPal is part of eBay, which went public on September 21, 1998. Or do you mean eBay is planning to spin out PayPal into an independent company? Not likely.

  109. I predict by 2015... by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

    PayPal will be a distant memory.

  110. One word: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No

  111. Unless I get a job soon... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think paypal may be right.

  112. The end of the wallet? not likely by shoehornjob · · Score: 1

    They'll sell you on this but read the fine print. Anything like this is set up for convenience and is guaranteed to have less protection than swiping a plain old credit card. That's why I hardly use debit. You don't have the same rights to dispute a debited charge because you used your pin. Consider all the stories we've seen in the first half of this year about groups hacking into credit card systems and stealing millions of cc numbers and pins. In fact I'm surprised the whole industry hasn't imploded by now. The credit card companies are not responsible with their own infrastructure so why would you trust them to safeguard your info. Storing pin's and account numbers in clear text?! Really?

    --
    "We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
  113. But a little problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not all countries are supported and not all the supported countries have access to all features. While this happens, the wallets, cheques and other payment methods will dominate. When PayPal understands that they MUST support all countries and that there are people living outside USA with bank account on USA, then we, customers, can think to replace wallets with PayPal. When PayPal stops to grant refunds at their own discretion and become a secure method of payment and be paid, then we, customers, can think to replace wallets... before PayPal do this and make a BIG direction change, I don't see any possibility to replace anything, NO WAY! Do that changes, let people manage their PayPal account with all the features no matter in which country your customers live and then we can talk about replace something.

  114. I predict... by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 1

    Reports have begun to surface that I am projecting the end of PayPal as soon as 2012. Wishful thinking, most likely.

    --
    This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
  115. While I've never waited long.. by Repossessed · · Score: 1

    Paypal customer service was still at an utter loss for what to do if the online password reset doesn't work.

    --
    Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
  116. In their dreams. by dotfile · · Score: 1

    They are grossly overestimating their own relevance. When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I use PayPal to receive money from others (because they insist on it). I also use credit cards. But it will be a cold, cold day in hell before I stop carrying a wallet, or cash.

  117. define "no one" by marxzed · · Score: 1

    this goes beyond normal marketing hype right in to the heart of blowtardary.
    if by "no one" in its literal sense then they will fall short by probably 99.9999% of the worlds population.... you honestly expect me to be able to get off a plane in Columbo, Sri Lanka, and pay for a meal from a street vender with something that isn't Rupees or US Dollars? not going to happen by 2015 probably not going to happen by 2115.
    if by "no one" they mean "no one in the western world" yeh um sure maybe by 2115 ... maybe ... it's possible... I guess...
    if by "no one" they mean "no one in the United States of America" meh.. maybe by 2020 at the earliest would be when the majority of people start using e-cash for more than, say, 95% of transactions by numerical volume rather than by value of purchases.
    if by "no one" they mean "no one working for Pay Pal" then sure... all they have to do is on the 30th of december 2014 fire the 75% of their employees who didn't get the memo that wallets are passe... that would work.
    fact is the only place this could possibly happen by 2015 is Singapore if they made it a law... now that would work...
    and remember
    if you outlaw wallets only outlaws will have wallets.

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  119. so...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    where am i gonna keep my credit card, driver's license, college id card, wiper for my glassess, a spare gum, a sim, and pictures of my mom and dad, and an address in case of an emergency ???

  120. Not quite by aepervius · · Score: 1

    I haven't been all over europe, but the country I am accustomed to (germany for example) you can nowaday buy with the so called bank card everywhere (obviously not internationally going from germany to France, but everywhere in germany. Some place in france accept german bank card though, and I am pretty sure the contrary is true too). It is true it is harder with credit card for low amount, but that is missing that the bank card allow buying in 99% of the place , even for sum as low as 5 or 10 euro. Why use a fragging credit card then ? Heck there are even shop in germany (Rewe) which allows you to wishdraw CASH when you check out your grocery , and without fee, with your bank card.

    As for your "have 600 euro in the wallet" , I have to wonder what your friend is doing with that. All my friends, all my colleagues, all my family at most take 100 to 150 euro in cash once every few week, for the small stuff where a bank card is not accepted or is way under a minimum. Many supermarket even abolished the "minimum".

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:Not quite by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Heck there are even shop in germany (Rewe) which allows you to wishdraw CASH when you check out your grocery , and without fee, with your bank card.

      My experience wasn't with Germany, but you have just shown still how backwards the system of having a debit card is. The mere fact that you're specifically pointed out being able to cash out when buying with debit to me seems like this is something new or unique.

      It's common practice here. Pretty much every supermarket, most fast food joints, and the like will allow you to do this. Many places will let you get cash out like this without even making a purchase. It has been like this here for about 10 years. While Europe was busy talking about a chip and pin we've been installing NFC machines everywhere.

  121. Wallet until universal service obligation by uksv29 · · Score: 1

    There is no way the wallet will disappear until there is a universal service obligation on Paypal and other means of payment. Such an obligation will heavily penalise electronic payment providers if they withdraw service from specific users or their networks fail to deliver a reliable service.

    Cash is reliable - that is why people use it. Nobody can stop me using cash to get things I need. Look what has happened to Wikileaks when certain US Governement people had a chat with Visa and Mastercard.

    E-Cash might be a way around the control issue. BitCoin is interesting but has a few issues with scaling and anonymity - its pretty good though. The next iterations of E-Cash will draw heavily on the techniques of BitCoin and I'm sure will avoid a lot of the issues.

    Andy

  122. Not again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm tired of all this "no one will be x by y" crap, people have been saying stuff like this since the dawn of time, and these things never actually happen. Statements like these can *maybe* be made in the context of a single culture/region, but making such broad claims on a global scale is a fine example of incoherent, more so when the source is a company that would greatly benefit from their own prediction, if it only would ever be the case (which it most likely won't, for the same reason some people are still using tapes in this day and age).

  123. Change of Operation is not an excuse. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Their verry charter, bi-laws, and particularly their EULA all are the same.

    When the going gets ruff, they WILL revert back to their true form of depriving the "donator" of their currency because according to their verry employees they actually have depositted all their holdings into a high-yield Wels Fargo account to receive interest and only have a storefront that gives the illusion of ever having accountability.

    And I work for a fortune 500 company that has 10,001 transactions with PayPal...

    puh---leassse.

  124. Re:I can't believe that no one pointed this out ye by arekq · · Score: 1

    There are more...
    Cash, and cards, are more tolerable to abuse compared to a phone.
    You can throw it on the ground, or put it in water, and it's still usable.
    Try that with a phone.

  125. What are they, idiots? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even with cash-less transactions, I would never put anything security-related anywhere near a cellphone unless I pick the operating system, software and encryption. At least with an ATM or a debit card, it is in the bank's own interest to ensure security.

  126. New stupidiest, least informed statement ever. by GasparGMSwordsman · · Score: 1

    I think my subject line says it all. In fact if someone want to place a bet I'll take the it ain't happening line at 5 to 1 that at least 50% of people keep their wallet.

  127. By 2015 everyone will pay with bananas by prefec2 · · Score: 1

    Seriously, how delusional can someone get with crack or what every they are smoking? The wallet as a cash carrying device will not go out of business anytime soon. But, I can understand that Paypal wants to have it that way in the future as this would imply that they can make a fortune out of it. What me puzzles is. When all transactions are done via a company and they get money from every transaction than that is some sort of a tax. I cannot do business without paying some strange company for nothing. So maybe central banks of the world should issue such system as a replacement for paper money. Cost free for the users of the money just like it is with the current money.

    I don't like paying taxes to companies. It doesn't feel right.

  128. How would we Pay Escorts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... without revealing our true identities to eachother?

  129. No Wallets? Not in my lifetime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't care if I'm the last person on earth that won't own a 'smart-phone' or whatever you want to call those devices. My cable bill got so far out of line I canceled all but basic cable, and killed the phone. I have plenty of movies on my servers downstairs. Dropping my internet speed down to 1M sucked, so I kicked that back up to 8M. There's no way I'm going to have yet-another-media bill. My friend pays over $100/mo for his unlimited phone service. I think my daughter is up to about $180/mo. They both also have cable and internet bills as well.

    My cell bill $20/month - I talk, I text. 2 of the workstations at work are mine, a server at work I'm the only one that knows how to use, 3 workstations in the house, 5 servers downstairs, ONE ROUTER, one internet bill. (plus one router at work - I don't pay for that connection). My computing is done on computers, my talking is done with a cell-phone. The two don't need to intersect. How the fsck can you see on one of those tiny screens anyway?

    I'm a Sr. Bench Technician at an International Audio Console Restoration business, and make fair money. Pays, the mortgage and the bills. What has everyone else got for income that I don't?

    One old man told me "Everyone wastes their money in their own way" - he was right

  130. nike air max shoes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

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  131. PayPal Not a Pal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These guys are a scary bunch. Completely slack in my expeirience. Please give your money to street people or something instead of using these guys.

  132. Misleading Summary by perlith · · Score: 1

    From the source, not the blog writeup:
    "We believe that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S. – from your local corner store to Walmart. We will no longer need to carry a wallet."

    There is a difference between "end of the wallet" and "no longer need to carry a wallet".

    The former will not happen for several hundred years, physical currency has been in use too long in humankind existence for it to disappear that quickly. The latter I can agree with, if you can find a way to make my driver's license electronic so I can legally DRIVE to said store and then PURCHASE items which normally require ID. Otherwise, not gonna happen.

  133. My friend is a senior dev at Paypal | This is Bull by NSN+A392-99-964-5927 · · Score: 1

    This story is not real news. It is like looking into a Crystal Ball and pretending to be a psychic. This is nothing more than pure speculation. This is how the propaganda machine works, plant a seed, let it grow, create hysteria of this is what is going to happen and yet you believe it.

    This is what the New World Order is all about. My friend who works for paypal and whom shall remain nameless says this is total and utter bullshit.

    Conversely, by 2015 US dollar is worthless, The Euro is Worthless, lets invent a new international currency driven by the IMF. I say fuck you, I am staying with my Pounds Sterling thank you.

    --
    All cows eat grass!
  134. The Sex Industry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The sex industry is a cash-only (mostly) business. This is nonsense. Reminds me of that Frank Zappa tune that laments the poor fellow who tries to buy some ***** with a 3rd-party check.

  135. End of PayPal by Wormholio · · Score: 1

    This is good. I take it to really mean that we'll see the end of PayPal by 2015.

    --
    "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
  136. The end of the wallet...no by Migity · · Score: 1

    Possibly the end of carrying physical money though.

  137. yoda? by Daimanta · · Score: 1

    is that you

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  138. Money is places the internet isn't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I often use cash because I'm beyond the bounds of Internet, cell coverage and still find myself needing to do financial transactions. I'd never want to depend on paypal when I could just check in my wallet for a little security.

  139. Re:They claim to not be responsible for your balen by moonbender · · Score: 1

    To be more accurate, that blurb says that your account balance is not covered by the AGDL deposit insurance, which insures your deposits against an insolvency of the holding institution. If my real bank went bust today, I'd get the money on my account back from a central insurer. Doesn't work the same way for PayPal.

    --
    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  140. In Outsourced America, India answers you...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, when I call PayPal I get through pretty quick too...to someone reading a script named "Tawm" who's enjoying the lovely *checks weather in India* 27 degrees and light rain.

    Sorry, but if your resolution is not in their script, you can assume panic mode because you know this won't end well.

  141. And flying cars. by BobGregg · · Score: 1

    Around the same time, you see. And secure electronic voting, too. And also, pigs flying out of my ass.

  142. What about other needs for a wallet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is PayPal that moronic to forget about formsof identification, possibly a few membership cards, maybe a gym access card, hell even a bloodtype card?

    effin morons...

  143. Dumb predictions by Torodung · · Score: 1

    My IQ dropped just reading the summary. If I click on TFA, I think I won't make it to 2015 because I will be declared legally braindead. This may be my new IQ speaking, though.

    Seriously. We still haven't done away with mag-stripe cards in the US. What the hell makes PayPal think their products are so good that we'll do away with the only convenient way to carry our paleolithic cards? We are proud dinosaurs, and our (real) banks are amongst the most conservative set of last adopters in the world. You can poke this prediction with a stick and it's still not going anywhere.

  144. Hot dog vendor paying 10% in trans. cost? Get real by rfc1394 · · Score: 1

    As I noted on the original article (and expanded here) , if I give a hot dog vendor $3 for a hot dog and a soda, the vendor gets the whole $3. First, a vendor is not going to accept being charged 35c to process a $3 transaction. (Based on the typical transaction cost of 34c+3% of the transaction, which is what Google Payments or Paypal charges me, which would be a minimum of 35c) Get that down to 10-12c and it will probably be acceptable. Second, we need to have nationwide ubiquitous wireless internet to allow our prototypical hot-dog vendor to be able to handle transactions where they would need to handle it through some sort of system that doesn't charge a fee for message processing, unlike cellular networks who would ding the vendor for a text message fee to and from the charge processor. Third, the price to have the processing equipment has to come down, a hot dog vendor is not going to accept a minimum $30 per month service charge to be able to swipe credit cards when they can handle cash for free.

    --
    The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
  145. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use mobile payments for almost everything (Suica and Edy), but "almost" doesn't mean everything. Not every neighborhood bar takes cards or mobile payments. And I still have a wallet because fit has my ID, etc., in there.

  146. Paypal paints itself legit? by jasoncrowley · · Score: 1

    As long as online payment institutions remain unregulated, then their idea of 'banking' is a joke. I find the possibility of online payment systems taking over in their current form highly unlikely, and frankly, downright laughable. Literally every single person I know has been burned by paypal in one form or another. Whether being forced to wait as paypal decided to hold funds for an indeterminate amount of time, to having their accounts frozen and loosing funds forever. As long as that remains the status quo, paypal (and other systems like it) will remain a novelty. It is far easier to scam someone out of funds using paypal than it is to rob people at gunpoint, and it's more anonymous too. Personally, I think paypal is a haven for crime, with the institution itself being the largest culprit, but that is just me.

  147. the end is nigh... for wallets. by jmb1990 · · Score: 0

    Do the people at paypal behind this idea really think in just 4 short years people will have ditched paper money and debit/credit cards for mobile payments? Personally, even if mobile payments do take over i'll just put my phone in my wallet and carry that, problem solved.

  148. Yeah, Right by Vrtigo1 · · Score: 1

    Sorry Mr. Bar Bouncer Guy. I don't have an ID because carrying a wallet is so 2011. But I do have this digital ID picture on my smartphone, and I promise it's not fake even thought you would have absolutely no way to tell if it was.

    I wonder if they're taking into account all the little indian-owned gas stations that will illegally refuse to accept a credit/debit card and require you to pay cash if you're just buying a 99 cent soda?

    And I totally agree re: eBay/Paypal. I wish them a fiery death. I sold my old iPhone on eBay earlier this year, it got damaged in shipping, and Paypal gave the guy his money back. Even though the package was insured. They didn't even make him send the phone back so I could at least file an insurance claim with UPS and get my money back. So...shafted out of $200. So, after they stole my $200, I sent them an inquiry through their website, a couple days later I got an email basically saying sorry we haven't gotten back to you yet, then another few days later, another email saying gosh, we're real sorry but we just don't have time to answer your e-mail, so we consider the matter closed. If you still have a problem contact our level 1 phone support lackeys who have absolutely no authority to do anything that will help you and cannot escalate your request to anyone else that can. I tried submitting the form again as well as e-mailing my complaint to every conceivable e-mail alias @paypal.com and got the exact same response, so I'm guessing that's just their SOP. Give customers the shaft, ignore their complaints, lock every eBay transaction into using Paypal, PROFIT!