Is Australia Becoming A Cashless Society? (abc.net.au)

Australia's Reserve Bank will roll out an instantaneous money-transferring technology later this year, "which will push Australia even further towards being a cashless society," according to ABC. An anonymous reader quotes their report: In 2014, 12 financial institutions signed up to build the "New Payment Platform," partly as a way of bringing Australia up to speed with other countries that are ahead in the race to becoming completely cashless. Sweden is on track to become the world's first completely cashless economy, and just last November India got rid of its highest denomination bills, effectively eliminating 90 per cent of its paper money... The "New Payment Platform" will mean money can be transferred almost instantaneously, even when the payer and payee are members of different banks.
"It's estimated that somewhere between about $3.5 and $5 billion in Australia every year is lost in tax revenue due to the sort of cash economy," says an economics professor at the University of New South Wales, who predicts Australia could be cash-free by 2020. The Australian Payments Association reports that over 75% of the country's face-to-face payments are already tap-and-go, and ATM withdrawals have sunk to a 15-year low.

Comments

Re:Yeah, nah.

[blindseer]

Lived in the US for 5 years, I dont recall any outages for electronic payment systems, not for cards at least. I keep a bit of cash on me just incase.

I have to wonder about issues like power outages, what's the backup plan? Power outages have become less common around here but when they do occur it tends to be in times when the weather is poor and failure to get necessities like food and fuel could be life threatening. In a cashless society there is no backup plan, no cash to back up to.

I carry cash and use it for a large portion of my purchases, basically anything under $200 or so. I pay cash at the filling station, at the grocery store, at restaurants, and more. Why? Because it tends to be faster. While others are waiting for their card to clear through the computer I've got my change and I'm gone.

I have to think that retailers don't want this. I recall going to a coffee shop for breakfast and they just gave me the food because their cash register was down. They did the math that it was better for business to give the food away and keep people happy than close shop. Good for me, bad for that business. Had they not been so reliant on those electronics then they'd have been able to take my money.

One can argue that the cost is already passed onto the consumer in slightly inflated prices across the board, so if you're not using a credit card with some type of reward system you're just subsidizing those that do.

Or I can not participate in this and tell them that I'm not for sale. I used to have one of those "rewards cards" from a grocery store and I found it not worth it. I got endless "deals" on items I didn't want in the mail, on the phone, and everywhere I turned. I was just bombarded with advertising. I decided I wasn't going to do that any more. This also happened to be about the same time I had to move to a new town. I saw the junk in my mailbox almost disappear. I don't get near as many phone calls from people trying to sell me stuff.

There's been a few times where I had to break my rules on dealing in cash and I can see an immediate change in the junk I get in the mail. I'll use a credit card to buy gas and days later I get an offer for a credit card in the mail from that gas station chain. The small amount of savings on my purchases from using electronic payment is just not worth it.