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The Cashless Society? It's Already Coming
HughPickens.com writes Damon Darlin writes in the NYT that Apple pay is revolutionary but not for the reason you think. It isn't going to replace the credit card but it's going to replace the wallet — the actual physical thing crammed with cards, cash, photos and receipts. According to Darlin, when you are out shopping, it's the wallet, not the credit card, that is the annoyance. It's bulky. It can be forgotten, or lost. "I've learned while traipsing about buying stuff with my ApplePay that I can whittle down wallet items that I need to carry to three": A single credit card, for places that have not embraced, but soon will, some form of smartphone payment; a driver's license; and about $20 in cash. Analysts at Forrester Research estimate that over the next five years, US mobile payments will grow to $142 billion, from $3.7 billion this year. "If I were to make a bet, I'd say that 10 years from now the most popular answer from young shoppers about how they make small payments would be: thumbprint. And you'll get a dull shrug when you ask what a wallet is."
You can pry my wallet from my cold, dead, sciatic nerve.
> earned while traipsing about buying stuff with my ApplePay that I can whittle down wallet items that I need to carry to three": A single credit card, for places that have not embraced, but soon will, some form of smartphone payment; a driver's license; and about $20 in cash.
Okay... so why is ApplePay required to get down to those 3 items? Surely he can do with just the 3 and no apple pay....
"It's bulky. It can be forgotten, or lost"
My wallet is on a chain which links to my belt loop on my pants. My wallet will not be lost. However, my phone doesn't have this same protection.
And seriously, how is a phone any less likely to be lost than a wallet? One of the two is out and about of the pocket a hell of a lot more often than the other.
Without a smartphone, it seems that you'd get by with a single credit card, a driver's license; and about $20 in cash.
Where are you going to keep your condoms?
oh yeah... Slashdot, I remember now
Let's see.. things that won't be digitized anytime soon:
- drivers license
- gym card
- business card
- all those proximity reader entry cards for everything from zipcar to work
- work ID card
- subway / bus card
- discount / membership cards
Not to mention that my wallet never runs out of power or is otherwise rendered inoperable. Nor is my wallet susceptible to malware. As a bonus I can keep a stash of backup meds in my wallet in a little plastic container. It has a pleasant all-natural leather makeup that wears beautifully with time. And frankly it's a lot more dignified to have your amex clatter onto the bill at a fancy restaurant than it is to pull out your phone and beep-boop-beep up some app. As a side bonus at least some part of my life isn't under the NSA's review when I use cash.
You mean... my ability to make convenient and anonymous purchases?
I choose to use cash because most of my transactions are one where I do not wish to enter into a relationship with the other party.
Since I don't know how they will use my information, where there will upload it, what third party services they use and since nearly all do not have these answers when I ask, the only way for me to OPT OUT is cash.
So young people will be morons then? I can talk about things that existed before I was born, why can't they? I don't want to live in this future full of stupid, young shoppers.
The cashless society that Capt. Picard talks about, that's what I'm waiting for. Another 3 centuries, I guess..
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
With about a quarter of the economy being underground, plus one political party having paid works worth €1.7 million on its central building beind the counter.
Really th 200 and 500 euros notes should disappear, perhaps even the 100 euros. ATM only give 50 and lower anyway. But there are still 2 or 3 circulating €500 notes for every person living in Spain (including babies, etc...). This figure has dropped since the height of the real-estate bubble, but even then.
This said, going cashless, if this happens, will probably be one of the strongest blows to the back-market economy. Suppressing large US banknotes would also make drug and weapons traficking a bit harder.
Cashless society is the last thing you want. You become even bigger slave of banks and your friendly government.
It will be a nightmare.
My job, and almost all medical jobs require me to carry my physical certifications on my person. The state and other regulatory agencies can demand my cards at any time for inspection. It's about ten small cards that will likely never leave my wallet, no matter what comes down the line.
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
Plenty of places worldwide do smartphone payments and you don't see them squawking about how the wallet is dead. It's just a convenience, not a game-changer.
When they decided to make it exclusive to apple devices while ignoring the much bigger android market.
No one will remember what a wallet is in ten years? Hmm...
Also this assumes that people don't have good reasons to keep using cash. Yes, it can be stolen, but that theft is limited to the amount on you. Electronic theft is much more serious and annoying, even if the credit card company (or whatever) is willing to foot the bill and find the thief. And, of course, cash will always be used for a huge number of purchases that are illicit or embarrassing.
At least I OWN this wallet!
I don't own this phone (and yes, I did pay for it and don't have a contract, but it can be switched off and the NSA can tap it willy nilly). You people want an e-wallet that can be shut off like your phone? Tapped like your phone?
What this is leading to is anybody politically undesirable will be shut out of the economy at the push of a button.
Fuck you technophiles
>80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
>life
My lost $20 bills never sent me a charge for $24,000 from halfway around the world from a country I've never been to. If some psycho exGF, worker, political opponent manages to frame you or turn everything off, 2-3 weeks fast pedaling becomes harder, while you starve. In a police state, all kinds of bad things formerly just in the movies, mean YOU.
> And you'll get a dull shrug when you ask what a wallet is.
Really now.
Or it'll be a fad that quickly fades out.
Seriously, cashless society is right up there with "year of the Linux desktop". I remember back as a kid watching shows like Discover Magazine hyping the shit out of it.
Sure, someday it'll probably be here in some form, but something tells me Apple Pay isn't that form.
The phone and wallet don't have to be at war with each other, they cam complement each other quite well.
With Apple Pay in particular, there's one very good reason to link a card into that system even if you never intend to pay using the phone - you get push notifications when money is spent on the card linked to ApplePay, even if you just use the card itself to buy whatever.
While credit cards could do this with custom apps, I've not seen it done before (at least with credit - I'm pretty sure some banks were doing this already when payments were made from an account) - and it's really nice as a backup mechanism to know earlier rather than later if your CC number has been compromised, even wen using online.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yeah sure, we all just run out and buy overpriced Apple products so we can eliminate our credit cards and cash. We won't need our drivers license, fishing license, insurance cards, or any of the other crap that is currently in most of our wallets, because after all, what we really wanted were iPhones.
I better rush out and replace my Nexus 5 with whatever the latest iPhone is. I can't wait to no longer be able to just sftp files/music/pictures to and from my phone, because you know I just love running iTunes instead.
According to Darlin, when you are out shopping, it's the wallet, not the credit card, that is the annoyance. It's bulky. It can be forgotten, or lost.
A cell phone is bulky and can be forgotten or lost. In addition, my wallet isn't big or bulky and contains my ID - which I'm required to carry, at least to drive, and won't be electronic for quite some time, if ever.
"If I were to make a bet, I'd say that 10 years from now the most popular answer from young shoppers about how they make small payments would be: thumbprint. And you'll get a dull shrug when you ask what a wallet is.
Merchants can have my thumbprint when they pry it from my cold dead hand. P.S. Cash and CC work even when my cell phone has no bars or is dead - if I carried a cell phone, which I don't.
Besides, aren't things like Apple Pay simply a credit-card proxy with, you know, Apple (or whoever) watching/tracking in between?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
You won't be playing badminton at the clubs without cash.
Most people who pay me don't have bank accounts, it's either cash or money orders.
Gas for the car? Cheaper via cash. This becomes all the larger when gas prices are higher.
Car repairs? You'd be a fool to pay electronically, when the discount for cash gives you $20 back for small services, and multiples of that for large.
Drinks at the bar? Cash means faster service, more value to your tips, less problems/complaints on tabs.
Meanwhile, every other month I know folks who have dropped phones in the toilet, lost, broken, had their phone stolen, or the person paying for their phone service doesn't, so it gets shut off. Only once in my dozen years of doing my job has a client lost her purse.
I laugh every time these articles get posted here, as there are entire segments of society for whom this would not function.
if it ain't in my pocket, it's on top of my videotape machine... a TT-70B the size of a Fiat. /-coot
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I just wrote a check today. I asked the guy if he would take a CC, they said they did on the phone. He was like, "my wife forgot to mention that". Then he was like, "they take a percentage anyway. Checks don't do that". One function of the much maligned Federal Reserve System is to oversee a system that... wait for it.. clears checks. It's all electronic behind the scenes now (that's how banks can let you scan checks with your phone). Presumably, this costs money; but they're not charging the merchant and they haven't charged me for the transaction as long as I don't overdraw. Yes, it costs money to print the checks. I really don't like them. I do tend to regard them as a backwards form of payment. As a consumer they occupy a "sour spot" between cash and credit. I don't get the anonymity and speed of cash or the reward points and easy online payment of credit. I was hoping that my recent print of new checks would be my last. With certain merchants and government agencies though, checks still seem to be preferred. I use them slowly, but I still use them. There may be another print in my future after all...
Anyway, screw all this cashless business. I like my bills, and I even like some of the loose change. We need to go dollar coin eventually, like most of the rest of the world, and eliminate the penny. I think that's more likely to happen than cashless. I know I'd rather see that happen.
Anyway, they haven't eliminated checks. If they actually did I might be more concerned that we're going cashless. As much as I hate the check, I'm sure there are people who hate other things I like and vice-versa. Why can't we all just get along? Wanna Apple Pay? Fine. Wanna Bitcoin? Fine. I don't want to do any of that. I think it's all stupid. I wanna cash for small stuff, and credit for some other things. I'm willing to deal with checks if I have to. The rest of the world can do whatever it wants; but don't try to force your ways on the rest of us.
For me at least a wallet is a necessity. I have various forms of ID and other cards that I need for my job. Furthermore why should payment by phone replace a credit card when it is just as convenient in my opinion? Also let’s not forget the security issues that paying with a phone brings with it. Another thing too is that you can lose a phone as well, so to me it seems more like a preference than something that will make the wallet go away.
Not everyone has an iPhone you privileged douche bag
Google Wallet and the Google Wallet card have done this since release.
While interesting it's not a "real" credit card that most people would use - no rewards, can't use in many stores, non-geek family members will not use, etc.
ApplePay is just that and more to anyone without an iPhone 6.
First of all, people with iPhone 4s or above will be able to pay using the device when the Apple Watch launches. Even now some iPad models also work with ApplePay, because you can also use ApplePay for online purchases.
But - my post is about the benefits of using ApplePay to link to credit cards, even if you don't use the phone to pay. Any device can technically use ApplePay to hold card data, and receive notifications when the cards are used even if you are not there.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What if I don't? Is it going to be forced on me? I think not. What about poor people?
There will always be legal currency issued by your country, it will never be done away with completely, and I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to have every single financial transaction I make, no matter how small, tracked by someone.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Beholden to the Schneieresque method of security, I'll keep my wallet – and my fucking password. I suppose we'll all want cloud-keys to our homes and safes soon too? How about cloud-based pharmaceutical injections from a chip up the arse? Or maybe a cloud-based oxygen supply when air goes privatization? Carrignton (1859), please come again, bigger and better.
Fuck you
Hell, I'm still waiting for flying cars, art deco robots and my vacation home on Venus.
... bitcoin articles on Slashdot.
Have we learned nothing about the inherent risks of centralized banking? Apple pay.... Gah!!
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
I am required by law to carry a driver's license, car insurance card (x3), and car registration (x3). That's 7 documents. They're going in my wallet.
If I am in a car accident, I do not want the emergency responders wondering what my blood type is or if I can pay. Therefore I carry a medical card and insurance card. I also need the same for my children, in case they are with me. So 4 more documents.
And despite fantasies to the contrary, I need cash. Cash is King. I spend hundreds of it every week.
So with 11 critical documents to carry, plus cash, I need a wallet. If you get rid of my cash, I have 11 critical documents, and I need a wallet. If I don't mind dying in the car I am driving due to slowed medical response, I only need 7 documents.
If I don't care about going to jail for not having my driving documents, I don't need a wallet.
Genius. This sounds like when I was a kid and for a decade or more I heard that the microwave was replacing the oven. Yet I have both. Everyone does. Same thing here. My wallet may not have credit cards in the future, but as you can see, that's the last reason I carry a wallet.
What's next? Women without purses? Because they don't carry makeup? ROFLMAO. This is a solution looking for a problem.
Oh, we're in the universe of the made-for-TV infomercial, aren't we? You know, that universe where everyone has stupid made-up problems that no one actually has? All that's missing from the summary is the crappy acting of all the D-List wannabe actors having problems with their bulky wallets.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
We still have large amounts of grocery stores that still have min purchase $10 EFT due to high transaction charges.
I smell BS lies there from the shop owner being super stingy.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
A single credit card, for places that have not embraced, but soon will
So do you have a separate card for places that have not embraced and never will?
... We ended up going to a nearby ATM so I could by the comics.
Here is a (funny) anecdote, a couple years ago I went to a small comic book store with my son. I hardly ever have cash on hand. When we went to checkout I asked the guy if he took credit cards, and he puffed out "not until they outlaw cash!".
The main reason you are seeing a push for a cashless society is so that the government can collect 100% of the taxes that they say belong to them.
In the future, a traffic camera will take a photo of you running a red light by a millisecond, then the fine will be automatically debited from your account.
In a cashless society, say good bye to freedom.
Besides, how exactly are you supposed to pay for a prostitute without cash?
ugg..I hate the high interest rates. I just use my American Express card. :p
I can drop my wallet onto a hard surface, from even higher than 1 metre, and it won't break. Neither will the cash inside it, ditto credit cards.
If "it's bulky, can be forgotten or lost" renders a wallet+contents unusable, then so does "I dropped my phone and it broke".
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
because I've been doing this for over a year now! Just over a year ago I decided I just needed my iphone, a flip case (like this), my visa debit card, my drivers licence (I am required to carry it by law when driving in my country) and about $20 cash (for places that don't have paywave/EFTPOS). It's worked out really well. I keep a coin bag in my desk drawer at work and one in my car for loose change. I also have a ziplock bag with some cards in my car glovebox (video card membership, club memberships, games store memberships etc..). It's a really good system.
folks do not mind paying an unearned and non-negotiable fee to banksters for each cashless transaction. I pay cash at local establishments but use a debit card at the rare times that I shop at chain stores. It's a silent "up yours" protest. Did you know that Walmart negotiates a lower transaction fee than other retail outlets? Up yours to the nth degree Walmart.
Take your wallet, with whatever it is, and throw it down the stairs. Pick a nice long flight of stairs.
Now, take your smart phone with whatever protective cover you typically use and toss the phone down the same flight of stairs.
I'm guessing the wallet is a bit dirty, maybe a tad scuffed up, but the cash inside is still good and worst case a credit card is cracked, but I would bet that all the numbers on it are still perfectly legible.
I wouldn't make the same bet for the phone.
Bottom line: Wallets will always do better in a "drop test" than a smart phone.
We still have large amounts of grocery stores that still have min purchase $10 EFT due to high transaction charges.
I smell BS lies there from the shop owner being super stingy.
You'd likely be smelling your own statement then.
Merchant fees are killers for small businesses. Even at a minimum $10 per transaction a business is likely losing money on every EFTPOS purchase made.
I used to run a small business, it was not unusual for my EFTPOS costs would dwarf my staff costs. I used to sell computer hardware, so the MSF (Merchant Service Fees) were less of the transaction total costs compared to a cafe but they still hurt. Customers who paid cash or debit were brilliant (and got discounts because of it). MSF's have become a lot better since I was running my business, but they're still big enough to kill a small business.
Heres what a merchant pays:
- Monthly fees (services).
- Monthly fees (terminal).
- Per transaction fees (for debit, usually between $0.20 and $0.50).
- Per transaction fees (for credit, 1-6% depending on bank and card).
- Annual fees (yep, they charge monthly and annual fees).
So ignoring the monthly and annual fees, if you bought a $4 coffee on your credit card, $0.50 at least disappears to the bank, that's pretty much all the profit gone from the sale (and I bet you wonder why things cost so much in Australia).
People who try to force small businesses to accept cards without allowing a surcharge or minimum purchase are killing small businesses in Australia. However one of my favourite cafe's has a solution to people like you. The menu price for a coffee is $4.50 but the "secret" cash price is $4.00, it's a win-win for me and the business.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Many times I've been refused a purchase as a credit/debit/card or check was required. Hard for me to beleive but I've been there.
I find a wallet makes my butt hurt so I carry just three cards I find of importance my debit card, drivers license, and library card - nothing else is ever required.
My debit card pays for everything, everybody is set up to accept it. Cash I give to the kids :)
As for pictures I always have my cell phone which I would never use for monetary transactions, Just four days ago (Black Friday) I had thought I had lost my cell phone even went back to look for it, was in my freaking back pocket pocket, found when it made one of it's noises; boy was I ever glad - but shows how easy it would be to lose ones ability to purchase or pay for anything if dependent upon a cell phone or such.
I'm swapping all my money for some gold and silver dinars.
article talks about license, cash, credit cards.... replacing the wallet... that's not going to happen. Men will carry wallets (for other stuff) and women will carry handbags (cause it's fashionable and again... other stuff).
NYT's got it wrong, again.
It's not about the wallet being replaced, but the dawn of the Global ID that we'll all have. All the disruptiveness in the valley is pointing at this solution being available in the future.
The world of Logan's Run is coming, due to the sake of convenience (your own UUID can pay, be a license, etc...) and security (can be monitored atomically). We, the people, need to make sure and demand protection laws are in place so we don't end up with a Logan's Run society. Stuff like Apple pay are ignoring that aspect and just being rushed to market (in the cover of "beta"). And don't count on the folks in DC, corporations, or rich guys being nice (foundations) making sure fair "rules and mitigation" practices are in place.
Cash is always king. Try paying for anything with a power outage, the Internet is down, or simply the clerk is too stupid?
I ALWAYS pay in cash for anything below $50. It's grand to be frugal, wise, and wealthy.
slashdot = loves promoting the Orwellian agenda
Driver's license, cash. Done.
My cash has never had a dead battery or bad signal. Cash has never required an ID or a minimum purchase from me. Cash has never been declined because I tried to use it at 4 am in a pattern suspicious to my bank. I've never been to a merchant whose cash taking apparatus was down. I've never overdrawn my bank account with cash withdrawals. My bank account has never been screwed up because a merchant I gave cash to got hacked.
It's not that I don't use a debit card (I carry it in my wallet with my ID), but whenever I can I use cash. It's much simpler and safer.
...because I know that if I don't charge my credit card every flipping night, it will be useless tomorrow too!
Oh wait.
-Styopa
without the ability to pay them in cash, illegal immigrants will probably go away. After all, they'll then be forced to have a local bank account, pay taxes, and whatnot.
Hard to stay incognito for both employee and employer.
As government becomes more oppressive and intrusive, cash or other anonymous, untaxed exchange means will become more common. This will lead to harsh crackdowns, which will encourage more anonymous, untaxed exchange, which will... You get the idea.
Until they can incorporate my driver's license, ADA card, Chicago symphony card, corner bakery free cup o joe card, BLS/CPR card, medical insurance, Saks Off Fith More card, Sam's club card, medical flex account spending card, Bartolotta Rewards card, PADI certification card, DEA registration card, dental license, erewhon explorer card, optical insurance card, credit, debit, and ATM cards, and every other goddammed stupid card that someone forces or wants me to carry around now and in the future because they are too goddammed stupid to put all this crap onto a single memory chipped card, a payment system on a phone is just one more silly thing to have to deal with.
It's bulky. It can be forgotten, or lost.
Unless you have your Apple iPhone or iPad implanted into your body, it can be forgotten or lost as well.
Lets see. A wallet is completely expendable. Pain in the ass to replace all of my ID, cancel and get new credit cards, etc. but completely doable. Having some junkie cut off my thumb because he can use it to get his next fix? Not an acceptable option.
Therefore, my wallet is not going anywhere anytime I have a choice in the matter and I will make damn sure that my kids and their friends pause to think of those concerns as well.
I wouldn't want to get hurt and not have my medical insurance card or ID, when my phone battery happens to be dead.
" it's the wallet, not the credit card, that is the annoyance. It's bulky. It can be forgotten, or lost."
Just like your iphone.
"US mobile payments will grow to $142 billion, from $3.7 billion this year. "If I were to make a bet, I'd say that 10 years from now the most popular answer from young shoppers about how they make small payments would be: thumbprint. And you'll get a dull shrug when you ask what a wallet is.""
Aren't predictions wonderful, just by pulling a bunch of numbers out of their asses they have predicted a 50X increase in the next five years. Got to get those stocks pumped up. And biometrics isn't all that it's cracked up to be just another 'it's irrefutable' technology that companies will use to excuse themselves from responsibility when fraud happens.
And if he keeps his driver's license in the car glove compartment, 90% of the time he doesn't need to carry that, either.
Very bad idea - if someone breaks into your car they know (a) you are not at home, (b) may have your garage door opener, and (c) thanks you your idea know where you live.
Do not keep anything with a home address in your car.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The last time I checked, my wallet doesn't become useless if I don't plug it in after 24 hours. When they come up with a killer battery, then this may catch on with everyone.
I carry a card holder for credit cards, license or whatever with some notes wrapped around it and some coins in my jean's coin pocket. All the convenience of cash (no irony, just my opinion) without the irritating bulk of a wallet full of cruddy cards I almost never use.
Added bonus: the card holder is metal, so in the unlikely event of someone trying out skimming I'm safe.
Who needs a wallet?
Despite a lifetime of gadget-loving, I'm a smartphone holdout. (My employer pays for my cell, and it's dumb. ) But what I really note about smartphones is they're quite heavy, most of the volume must be battery - and they still need nightly charging.
The movie "No Country for Old Men" made an impression on me that cash weighs something - that $2M was 50lb, even in hundreds. It seems to me the weight of a smartphone, even just in a mix of 5's 10's and 20's, is the weight of more cash than I spend in a week. How many bills is the weight of, say, an iPhone 5 equal to?
I wonder if those of us who have only a 3-oz DumbPhone now will find our pockets heavier or lighter after we are compelled to get an iPhone 9 to buy lunch.
You can pry my wallet from my cold, dead fingers.
Seriously. With all that stupid shenanigans by NSA, GCHQ, BND and how else those fucking four-letter agencies are called; with all that creepiness by Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon - cash is and stays the most user-friendly, anonymous payment method available and will stay m default payment method. I'll resort to methods other than cash only whenever cash is unbearably inconvenient.
Things like PayPal or (gasp!) Apple are right out.
Welcome to Finland where we've been effectively cashless for 10 years. It is called a debit/credit card-
BTC duh!
I used to run a small business, it was not unusual for my EFTPOS costs would dwarf my staff costs.
Parent makes an excellent / informed list of costs - thank you! For those with small businesses - try a Square device. Less than $100 for the initial investment in hardware, 2.75% per transaction. Plenty of alternatives if you don't like Square.
The coffee itself costs the store about 50-75 cents, the transaction fees another 50 cents, and the staff/store upkeep are considered a fixed cost, so it doesn't factor in. The store still makes nearly $3 on your $4 coffee.
Without Apple Pay, I carry four cards in a slipcase: bank card (it's NFC cash card, debit card, and transit card), government ID, driver's license (when I get my Singapore license, I can leave this one behind), home keycard, and an "emergency" $50 note (which, honestly, has never been used so far). That's it. If I drive, I'll take my car fob.
I've owned/run a small business since 1998. We used to have one of those merchant services that screw you the way you describe. But we started using square in 2010. We pay a percentage [2.75 IIRC]. No other fees, no per charge, no monthly, no statement, nothing. Same percentage for all card types, AMEX, VISA, Discover. Our old merchant had qualified rates and higher unqualified rates. They refused to tell us how to diferentiate. All in all, even though our "official" rate was about 2.2%, our efffective rate was about 4.5 to 5%.
Be it 2, 5 or 26 euros I always prefer to pay cash, especially if it's to "real people" rather than supermarkets and other huge "machines". Drawing cash at the ATM is free for me (I can even use any brand of ATM) and I like giving 50 euro-cent coins to bums so they're around half way to getting a beer or bread.
So : transactions costs are always free to me (except debit card's monthly fee) but if I use cash the shopkeeper, haircutter, snack merchant etc. gets more money, and I can get change which then enables me other transactions.
Go to a vegetable stall at an open air market : it's not even wired to electricity. Possible to have a small system on battery with 3G modem but it's surely uneconomical to lease and what if the merchant never used an iphone or an android?, how to explain a consumer what he should do, what if there's malware etc. Who can carry a few groceries but can't be arsed to carry a low volume of coins and bills?
"If I were to make a bet, I'd say that 10 years from now the most popular answer from young shoppers about how they make small payments would be: thumbprint."
I want to kno whow much he wants to bet.. ill put up my soul.
A remarkable number of people do not have readable fingerprints for a variety of reasons: thin skin which makes the fingerprint disappear; wearing it off due to hobby or occupation; finger print patterns that don't work with the feature extraction software; people with injuries, etc.
So we'll be able to recognize these people by the fat wallets they carry?
Anonymity. I don't do anything illegal. But really are you willing to trade your privacy for little convenience ? With low interest that is accrued in a bank I am surprised that a majority of us do not just have a safe for our savings. The money saved in taxes is more than what the interest is. I haven't done this yet but I am tempted to. The interest on my savings account is far less than what I get paid in interest.
There will be a stunning legal effect if cash is not the method of exchange. The rich will continue to be able to lead criminal lives with very little chance of being caught. But low level criminals will be swept up like never before. The thief with cash from stolen bicycles will not be able to spend his money as he can not verify his money intake. Even for organized crime it will create big problems as the lesser players that the mob depends upon will not be able to explain their income. Even the store owner who pays a bit of protection will become historic as with electronic money the books will never add up. In essence if the exact crime can not be proven the IRS would have people by the short hairs every time. Even the migrant farm workers as well as their employers could be swept up with great ease as electronic money will be unavoidable. Yet there are places such as New jersey where crime may be essential in the lives of most people as the state is known to be so corrupt that organized crime is actually a moderater for governmental and business corruption.
Last Time I checked, local law, employment rules and other things (like high theft) will cause ID checks. I look that it this way, both the store and the customer have to choices. To shop or not to. Oh and for those of you who have need worked in retail or have no friends that did. The top things they tell you in the regional (like frys) and below stores is Check ID for large purchases (Xbox, computer etc). Top problems: Theft, people opening the boxes because they are: afraid its not all in there, they can't conceptualize what it looks like from the box photo or theft. ;) (promise its the only time)
So don't open a box or package you haven't paid for without a employee beside you help you. Why? Because you know as well as I do that we don't buy those busted up boxes anyway.
AS for the idiocy of the not having a wallet, (and I am surprised that no one has said it yet) Is appleplay the mark of the beast?
Seriously, I don't see the wallet ever going away anymore than I see women's purses going away. We will always need something independant of the chip, smartphone etc to verify us and there will always be areas that have no wifi, cell service who will only accept cash or put minimum charges because they can't afford it.
Cash brings me enjoyable transactions and frees me from POS terminals, paperwork hassles. I increasingly find that people are patient and courteous while systems are impatient and rude. I paid a neighbor kid $20 cash to shovel a small driveway. I try to purchase my non-tech items used, typically from real people that genuinely appreciate the cash. I paid $150 cash for a 49cc scooter that runs but needs a new battery, $0.25 for a paperback to go in my airline carry-on, $2 for a 16-drawer organizer box nearly full of screws, washers, wire nuts and crimp-on connectors for twisted pair. I doubt the neighbor kids or garage sale lady would have taken anything other than cash.
I try to avoid big-box stores but needed to go to big hardware store get some specific-sized screws to fit the holes in my 19-inch rack to finish a project before the end of the day. It didn't want to swipe my corporate credit card and trigger a bunch of process for a few lousy screws. By spending about $2 cash, I saved me the hassle of filing out an expense report and saved my employer ~$25/hr for each person that would have had to touch the report and approve re-imbursing me with a corporate check for less than $2.
Cash, How else are you are supposed to bribe slippery government officials. They can't exactly covertly palm a credit card, charge $50 and slyly give it back! No one takes a check slipped in the pocket seriously. Besides, the best part of bribery, is no paper trail.
Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
They'll know where you live anyways. In the US, at least, you're required to keep your car's current registration card in the vehicle
I keep that in my wallet also, along with insurance.
DO NOT KEEP ADDRESSES IN YOUR CAR.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wiseguys never carry wallets
Perhaps he should get out of his cloud, and move about in the RW. Say, talk to people who not only don't own an iPhone, but are lucky to have phone service, becasuse they're earning minium wage, or near it, and are trying to pay their rent, food and utilities. Or look at all the secuirty breaches (hell, my wife was talking about a restaurant that's a spin-off of PC Chang, and my instant reaction was that if we went, we'd pay cash, given the long-term breach that Krebs revealed months ago). Or folks who actually give a shit about being tracked every minute of every day....
mark, who wouldn't touch an Apple, disliking would-be monopolies
As a person that has made a career of the IT industry, I get very tired of doing things digitally just for the sake of modernization. Once on travel, the computers went down and we had to board the plane "manually". No gold ruby vip boarding, just board the plane filling back to front first. We boarded and were wheels up in less than 10 minutes. My point is that technology is not always the answer. KISS still applies. I am reassured by all the posts against this technological idealism.
I work at an property and casualty insurance company out on a rock. Our president has lunches once a month and all the employees rotate through, he answers questions, people mingle, etc.
I went as a fill in this month and one of the questions is whether our firm would issue digital ID cards on smartphones, and he said we were looking into it...
I was shaking my head slightly and he looked at me and asked with a smile, "So what is the IT guy's opinion?"
I smiled and replied, "Cool tech, but personally, I would never hand my phone to a member of law enforcement without a warrant."
He replied, "I can see your point."
So sure, while I can agree that having some sort of digital something that keeps secure digital records that are public record anyway to provide to law enforcement upon request, AND a smartphone, is certainly better than a wallet full of paper and plastic cards AND a smartphone.
But ONLY a smartphone, or any single device, with my personal and what likes to be considered private data as well, I don't think so....
the barista fumbled with the card for a few swipes, unplugged and replugged the card swipy thingy and then after a few more swipes and apologies, much as one would whack a misbehaving laundry machine with broom a bit, the magic went through. I paid with cash. I guess a few of the vendors at the farmer's market also take those swipy thingies as well (slowly...connection? no?).
The tight couplings to the power system and lord knows what all else is doubtless a Normal Accident waiting to happen, but the power is always on, packets always flow, and the data centers always run, right? — resilient. That's the word I'm looking for.
Bankers want a cashless society = yet more money for them to cream off for doing nothing. Maybe governments want a cashless society = yet more control for them.
But any sane citizen does not want to see a cashless society. People who want to see a cashless society are either shills, or total idiots who haven't thought it through.
Yes, but you still have to carry the damn phone.
"Cash" money should be obsolete in the future, and likely will be. Counterfeiting is one reason why... http://www.newser.com/story/19...
In the last 3 years, I have found way more lost mobile phones then wallets. I dont think wallets are so easy to lose.