Living Widespread Use of Cashcards
on
Cashless Society
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· Score: 1
Widespread use that you can see on an everyday basis of the smart card is already a reality in a relatively large city. It's strange to read about the issues that hinder the potential of the cashcard in Europe and the States.
In Singapore, cashcards are a part of life - they haven't penetrated so-far-in as to be the basic method of monetary exchange - you still pay cash a burger or a bowl of noodles - but they are common throughout.
For one, you need one to drive on the road - certain more highly commercial or dense areas have an automatic electronic checkpoint which deducts value from a cashcard (mounted on the inside dashboard of your car) whenever you drive past them.
Certain parking lots have upgraded their facilities to allow for patrons to use cashcards to pay for parking fees, eliminating the need to go to a machine and queue up for the payment of your parking lot ticket.
The National Library (and the network of local libraries) no longer accept cash for the payment of outstanding fines or the fees from further extension of books. Everything in the libraries (payment wise) are done by cashcards.
The cola machines here have also started to turn to the use of both coins and cashcards. It's quite easy - just pop the card in, pick the drink and there's no hassle in coins.
Moreover, new machines are starting to pop up nowadays - standing public computers where people can pay anything from fines to bills of different companies. With those, you can use your cashcard as well - and while you're at it (as I often do) you can buy tickets directly off these machines for the show you want.
And in terms of availability - cashcards are sold and can be topped up in all petrol stations, 7 eleven's or the equivalent. You can get them at bookstores and malls as well.
All in all... It's kind of strange reading how bad the technology is or how impossible it is to have it implemented, and the even lesser chances of success especially when more and more here people have taken the cashcard for granted as a very simple, flexible, multi-use version of money. I guess I could rattle on about it, but I think you'd get the picture, and I guess it's a good way for other people around the world to see that it is possible and how it does and can affect an entire society in it's implementation.
Slashdot Mirror
In Singapore, cashcards are a part of life - they haven't penetrated so-far-in as to be the basic method of monetary exchange - you still pay cash a burger or a bowl of noodles - but they are common throughout.
For one, you need one to drive on the road - certain more highly commercial or dense areas have an automatic electronic checkpoint which deducts value from a cashcard (mounted on the inside dashboard of your car) whenever you drive past them.
Certain parking lots have upgraded their facilities to allow for patrons to use cashcards to pay for parking fees, eliminating the need to go to a machine and queue up for the payment of your parking lot ticket.
The National Library (and the network of local libraries) no longer accept cash for the payment of outstanding fines or the fees from further extension of books. Everything in the libraries (payment wise) are done by cashcards.
The cola machines here have also started to turn to the use of both coins and cashcards. It's quite easy - just pop the card in, pick the drink and there's no hassle in coins.
Moreover, new machines are starting to pop up nowadays - standing public computers where people can pay anything from fines to bills of different companies. With those, you can use your cashcard as well - and while you're at it (as I often do) you can buy tickets directly off these machines for the show you want.
And in terms of availability - cashcards are sold and can be topped up in all petrol stations, 7 eleven's or the equivalent. You can get them at bookstores and malls as well.
All in all... It's kind of strange reading how bad the technology is or how impossible it is to have it implemented, and the even lesser chances of success especially when more and more here people have taken the cashcard for granted as a very simple, flexible, multi-use version of money. I guess I could rattle on about it, but I think you'd get the picture, and I guess it's a good way for other people around the world to see that it is possible and how it does and can affect an entire society in it's implementation.