Cashless Adoption Growing In Europe

dkatana writes: Many European cities are moving toward a cashless economy. Some public services are not accepting cash anymore, such as parking meters, buses and transit, and city offices. (If you plan to visit Europe make sure your credit card has a chip, or you won't be able to use self-service machines.) Contactless cards, which allow people to pay easily for small transactions, are also gaining popularity. According to Finextra, a leading financial news service, "contactless is the new normal in Europe, with more than a billion tap-and-go purchases worth €12.6 billion on Visa cards in the last 12 months." In some places, cashless options are being pushed by mistrust of the banking system. At the same time, places like Germany are dead set on keeping cash as the preferred method of payment.

Comments

Europe has also had wire transfers

[SuperBanana]

Wire transfers are extremely common in Europe; virtually instantaneous, cheap, etc. Customers can do them themselves, person to person.

Here in the US? Anywhere from a day to WEEKS for absolutely no legitimate reason. You generally need a teller or branch manager to do it. At least $5; $40 if the transaction ends up going through the Fed.

It's 2015. Why does transferring money in the US take more than a minute and a few cents?

Re:You shouldn't have to pay to adopt a kid

[weszz]

This is how I read it as well... I am adopting a daughter next week friday from foster care for something like $53 total, so was thinking of paying cash... (the $53 is court costs, birth certificate etc...)

Was wondering if they went to a bartering scheme... I will give you 2 dogs for that child.

Re:If visiting Europe, card should have chip AND P

[xaxa]

They did it as the credit card market is more competitive in the States. Many people have several cards, and the issuers felt that requiring people to remember a PIN would make it less likely that the shopper would choose their card.