10 reasons why we should be cashless in 10 years or less.

Cash free? Not in my lifetime!! Come try and take it!!!!!

 

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Just landed in Maine before the snow fall and this was the first picture I saw. Nice!
-L

 

I find it funny/ironic that part of this thread revolves around salivary transmission of HIV.

Salivary proteins have been known AIDS inhibitors since the mid-90s, and there are currently grants issued to research the antiviral effects of protein in saliva, as they relate to the prevention of HIV transmission.

Essentially, one of the key reasons given for getting rid of cash is an ignorant understanding of HIV/AIDS that was debunked prior to the OP being born.

Beyond that, I found the following curiosities in Thailand/Philippines:

Thailand: 7-Eleven won't accept debit/credit cards. They *will* accept something called an orange card that's somehow related to a phone company. Due to my not having cash handy, I had to pay $11 to the Thai bank and $3 to my own bank to withdraw $70, give or take. It was stupid, but I really needed minutes for my prepaid phone, and I needed cash for a cab anyway.

Philippines: McDonalds won't accept debit/credit cards at certain locations. Typically, these are in food court type of situations. Also, they have interesting merchant agreements. Certain vendors will allow unlimited purchasing (similar to charge cards in the 80s) if you use a card issued by the bank that clears their charges. (This is according to someone I know who lives there, as I had no way to verify the validity of the statement.)

Now, I saw in the thread that OP complained that WF charged over-draft fees and returned check fees for purchases that were overdrawn on their account? Yikes! A bank that follows its account holder agreement!

 

A couple of days ago (late Dec/early Jan) there was a lot of media coverage in Europe with regard to cash in Sweden. The songwriter and composer Björn Ulvaeus (of "Abba" fame) is a vocal supporter of a cashless society, and he tried to live without cash for a year. Result: In Sweden it works. So now he will no longer accept cash at his Abba Museum ...

What he does not emphasize that much is the fact that the museum has two main sponsors. One of them is SJ (former State Railways), the other one is ... MasterCard.

Christian

 

With all the current trouble with electronic bank cards, now reported to be over 100,000,000 cards and accounts; would you trust a cashless society? The loss of PIN numbers and peoples private information would be small in comparison, if hackers succeed in taking all your electronic credits. How long could you survive if it takes months or more to rectify? If a human can assemble a security system, another human can take it apart. One is as good as the other. None are fool proof.

 

I pay at least 4%, YES, I prefer cash transactions.

 

Don't retailers also pay fees for the cash handling? A small business may just take some cash from a bank, and bring some cash back to the bank at the end of the day. But for most stores that deal with lots of cash, that is done by third parties. As for those 4%, over here (I'm in Germany) mobile services such as iZettle or Payleven charge 2.75 percent for credit cards and 0.95 percent for debit cards.

Please do not get me wrong - neither do I want to do away with cash, nor do I believe that its end is near. But depending on the volume, cash is not free either ...

Christian

 

On the off occasion that I personally take a CC payment (non-Paypal), it's 2.75% through Square.

 

Some preference for cash is fees, (my firm has a couple of retail stores so in the US at least cash is not free but much cheaper), but for others the cash preference probably is for "flexibility". I have a few vendor who give me better prices for cash, more than handling charges would justify. I pay them cash, and figure tax issues are their own concern.

 

I can't believe this thread is still going. 5 pages since the OP and the poster has not responded to one single reply. Too funny. I wonder if he/she even reads this thread or whether they're too busy wondering why a Bank requires you to actually have money deposited in it to be able to spend it via a debit card.

 

Par for the course for the OP.

 

The OP has not been posting here (Coin Talk) for about a month. Everybody here is free to contribute, or not. On the other hand, becoming "cashless" has been an ongoing topic here anyway, so I don't see any reason why we should not discuss it, regardless of who participates ...

Christian

 

As I look at the circulation mintages over the years, they are coming down slightly since the end of the 90's but it isn't significant. I'm thinking that money won't be replaced in my lifetime. I guess that I'm about 95% electronic transfers but I'm still using money about 5% of the time. My weekly poker game is still requiring money and probably it's a good thing. The folks with instant gratification needs aren't good with electronic transfers, especially at a poker table.

 

Phil, I don't see why you couldn't use Paypal or something similar to settle accounts at a friendly game.

 

Oh, but having actual money on the table is a lot more fun.

 

I'm pretty sure that in most parts of the US (and maybe many countries around the world), having actual cash on the table is against the rules, except in private games made for TV. The reason is it's difficult to assess how much "money" your opponent has in play when it's not represented in chips.

 

That's why you use coins, not notes. Bullion if necessary.

 

It seems you either don't play poker or you're playing Devil's advocate, so I'm done discussing this.