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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."
> 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.
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.
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.
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
I've been 98% cashless since the early 90s and never have more than a few dollars on me at any given time.. I put everything on a credit card and write one check a month to pay for everything. And now I don't even have to write a check, I just go online and make a payment straight out of my bank account to the credit card company. And, because I pay everything off every month it costs me nothing, and, since I'm using a 'cash back' credit card, I get a check for $50 every few months. It's not much but it's free money that I didn't have before. I'm sure the credit card company hates people like me, but fuck'em.
The credit card company loves people like you who evangelize the idea of using your credit card for everything and then paying it off immediately and then earning cashback on it.
Why? Because most of the people you reach with your message will fail to do so correctly, and ultimately will owe the credit card company fees. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
It's just too tempting for most people to say, "Well, this ONE month, I'll pay it late and then get that JetSki I've had my eyes on."
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.
I'm sure the credit card company hates people like me, but fuck'em.
When they can charge merchants a 3% fee because you won't consider using cash, you can be sure your CC company fuckin' loves you.
(Where did you think that "free" money was coming from? Did you think merchants just eat that cost?)
(You didn't actually think your CC company was losing money on you, did you? Really!?)
Hey, guess what, I pay exactly the same price whether I use cash or credit card. The number of businesses that do not accept credit cards is extremely small and getting smaller every day. Yes, merchants *DO* eat the 3% CC fee. They have to. They have no choice thanks to good old fashioned competition. If you don't take credit cards you WILL lose business to competitors who do.
Back some time ago a bunch of merchants won a lawsuit challenging Visa/Mastercard rules, and as a result merchants are now allowed to charge people more for using a credit card instead of paying cash.. Well guess what, I have yet to encounter one single merchant doing that. They have no choice. Once again, good old fashioned competition. If they charge more for using a credit card, they will lose business to competitors who don't.
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?
I've been 98% cashless since the early 90s and never have more than a few dollars on me at any given time
If you live somewhere where a natural disaster is a possibility (earthquake / hurricane / tornado) it's prudent to have a stash of small denomination cash that you have easy access to (100 five-dollar bills, for example). Generally when disaster strikes things revert to a cash (or barter) economy.
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 credit card company loves people like you"
But not for the reasons you think.
They love them because credit card money is "magic" money.
Not that fiduciary money is any more real in a strict sense, but while fiduciary money can only be created by gubernamental bodies, credit card money can be created by any bank.
Using your credit card reduces the declared cash reserve needs for banks as much as 10 to 1.
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
"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."
So what? Paper money has another very desirable property that electronic money lacks of: anonymity.
It's nobody business where and how I expend my money. Full stop.
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.
Hmm they love the transaction fees they get from retailers, that in turn make you spend more money on the item you bought. I do the same thing as OP, FWIW, but the world needs to find a way to remove CC companies from the loop, it's not working for anyone.
I find it surprising that people think credit cards don't hurt you.
I'll dumb it down for everyone.
When you go to the grocery store and shop, and then ring out - the credit card company makes money off of your purchase.
If you use cash, they make you pay the same price since the credit card companies hate the minimum purchase amount signs to use credit cards.
The credit card companies owners are the top 1% - they make craploads of money since most people don't understand that if they used cash instead of credit cards - they could save money since everywhere they shopped wouldn't have to pay for credit card fees.
lastly, that bit they give you for "cash back" is just an incentive to keep paying the higher premiums so the one percenters can keep having fat pay checks.
THEY WANT A CREDIT CARD LIFESTYLE - that will keep prices higher than they should be, and keep using you as the bottom feeder to promote it.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
Why? Because most of the people you reach with your message will fail to do so correctly, and ultimately will owe the credit card company fees.
Not really.
My wife works for a credit card issuer. For the sake of this discussion, we can divide credit card customers into two buckets: "revolvers" (those who revolve a balance each month) and "transactors" (those who use their cards only for their personal convenience when doing retail transactions). Issuers make the bulk of their profits by borrowing money at a low interest rate and lending it out to revolvers at a higher interest rate. They make a lot from fees too, but they try to avoid that now because charging a bunch of fees seems to antagonize their many and various regulators.
But transactors help the bottom line, too. While it's true that they bring in a bit of revenue via interchange payments (the payments that merchants make for accepting credit cards), that doesn't really lead to any profit for the issuer after they get through paying the rewards, sending statements, and just general marginal costs per customer. That's basically break-even. Where the issuers make their money on transactors is that they lower the overall risk of the issuer's portfolio and allow the issuer to borrow funds at a lower interest rate.
So that is the reason that issuers love "transactors". They increase profits by lowering the issuer's cost of funds.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock