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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.
Just saying.... :D
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Cash isn't going anywhere. As soon as the lights go out or the servers are down... you can only can with cash.
Here is a tip: if you don't trust banks, keep cash. Ask the Greeks and Cypriots why.
Governments everywhere will help facilitate a cashless society. Just think of all that purchasing data they can monitor. Not to mention, they can force people to pay local/state/federal sales tax on person-to-person sales (e.g.: Garage Sale items).
....
A truly cashless society is the wet dream of the IRS, FBI, NSA
Some things need to be said...
A cashless society is a surveillance society where every purchase you make is recorded permanently -- not only for government to use against you as they see fit, but for corporations to exploit your lack of privacy for their own profit (not yours).
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?
Please help metamoderate.
While it's true that in London the buses no longer take cash (you'll need an Oyster card) that's not the case everywhere - not even everywhere in England. But in many parts of most European countries (yes, Europe isn't even a single country) cash is very much king and it's wrong to assume that a credit card will be universally accepted. Many restaurants outside of cities in lots of countries won't take plastic. So it's wise to have enough cash to cover a transaction, even if you do expect to pay with a card.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
In case you didn't know, the cards that most banks are now issuing in the US are chip and signature, not chip and pin like in Europe, and I understand that there are some spots that DO NOT accept chip and signature, like unattended tolls, unattended gas stations, and possibly some unattended transportation ticket purchases (trains, etc).
Pretty frustrating that credit card issuers decided to go this route in the US with some bullshit justification that people wouldn't know how to use the cards (WTF?).
While the chip and signature is more resistant to skimming and duplication, it is no more secure than the old magnetic stripe cards if your physical card is stolen. I think they did this to prevent an increase in support costs instead (people requesting to reset PIN numbers, etc).
I use a cc for some purchases.
I NEVER use a debit card...
Since the Target debacle, and many more like it, I have transitioned back to using cash almost exclusively.
It appears to me that a cashless system is less robust and more likely to be taken advantage of by criminals.
So yes, cashless apologists will whine about things like bank robberies, etc, but when it comes to what is best for me, not the bank, I choose cash please.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
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.
Full Disclosure: yes, I live in Europe.
The largest cashless credit card payment system in France (Moneo) was just closed down very abruptly. Seems the whole ''cashless''/''contactless'' thing was just not profitable enough -- and not adopted enough -- to be continued.
Read all about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
In a place like Greece, for instance, it is well known that the vast majority of transactions are paid in cash, not using a credit card or anything.
I would take that kind of article with a large grain of salt on the side. Seems to me some bankers are declaring victory even before the war has started...
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Whether cash or credit, it's all controlled by a cartel of banks.
Cash transactions aren't linked to your name and stored in a database forever, and the cash in your pocket can't be deactivated by banks or a government.
(Yes, some smart Alec will point out ways to track and block bank notes, but this is waaaaaaaaay more difficult and waaaaaaaaaaaay less effective than what banks and governments can do to electronic money.)
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In the U.K. you must spend more than GBP 5.00. EUR 7.16. 7.80 USD. before you are allowed to use a debit card, or credit card in shopping centre/shopping complex/shopping mall.
You pulled that out your arse. I live in the UK and use my Debit card all the time and there is *no* simple rule like this, although in my (very considerable) experience the most common case is 'no minimum and no surcharge' for debit cards.
I've also seen the following for Debit cards:
Min £10
Min £5 (common in pubs but not universal)
Min £3 (e.g. one of my local sandwich shops)
No minimum at all - this applies in nearly all major supermarkets and major stores - I bought a sandwich for £2.20 with my card this morning).
No minimum but 50p transaction charge.
Etc.
And then there's a whole different set of charges (sometimes % charges) or lack of charges for credit cards.
Why would you just make up random shit about stuff you obviously know nothing about? Did you go in one shop in the UK once and assume they were all the same?
There are, at the moment, three issuers of PIN-preferred cards in the United States: United Nations Federal Credit Union, First Tech Federal Credit Union, and Harvard University Employees Federal Credit Union. The first two anyone can join by first becoming a member of a particular nonprofit association. Given a choice, I would go for First Tech (or the Harvard Alumni card if you qualify) since they offer no foreign transaction fees and support all PIN variations (where the PIN can either be verified by the card itself or over the network by the bank); UNFCU only offers no foreign transaction fees on a card with an annual fee (you'd have to decide for yourself if the annual fee is worth the other additional benefits).
There is one other PIN-preferred option, the Diners Club MasterCards issued by BMO Harris Bank. However, they stopped taking applications several months ago and haven't resumed, so they're not an option at present if you don't already have it.
Two other fairly large issuers, USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union, were offering PIN-preferring cards but switched to Signature preferring.
But one question to consider is if you need a PIN-preferring card, or merely one that supports PIN? In the latter case, you'll still sign most of the time but if you encounter a situation where a PIN is required, it will work. Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Synchrony Bank (they issue a lot of affiliate branded cards like Walmart and Banana Republic) all fall into this category. A PIN preferring card would allow you to more easily blend in in Europe, but for now would actually be harder to use in the US; particularly in restaurants since even those that have switched to EMV card readers are still doing the thing where they take your card away from the table, so you'd end up having to go with them to wherever they have the terminal set up to enter your PIN, rather than being like Europe and Canada where the waiter has a portable credit card reader that they bring to your table.
End of Line.