Going cashless

[vanillabean]

A cashless society is "no longer an illusion but a vision that can be fulfilled within a reasonable time frame."

This could be the first country to go cashless

[Gunnar419]

Though I enjoy playing the credit game and am glad to have credit and epayments as options, the cashless society will be a disaster. It has nothing to do with "transparency" or efficiency or any of the other common claims. It's all about controlling and tracking people. Eventually it will also give governments the means to destroy political enemies.

Scandinavians accept centralized control of their lives. Americans, not so much.

[vanillabean]

Or maybe, just maybe, it's the more business-minded, more American-like former Danish government who, along with the banks, sense that if they can't get the Danes to use the Euro, then how about simply taking away the physical krone and that way framing an opening of returning to power!

When all is said and done, the U.S. is a big country, while Scandinavian and various other European countries are small. Some subscribe to the notion that democracy works best in small entities, and there is certainly something to be said for that.

The article states that "Scandinavians rely on cash for less than 6% of all payments made. By contrast, around 47% of U.S. payments are still made with cash." Could a factor be that geography aligns between the two continents?

"While 37% of U.S. households live in the South, nearly half -- or 46% -- of all unbanked households in the country reside in this region. And so do nearly 40% of the nation's poor."

[yfan]

We are not going cashless anytime soon as a country, but parts of the country will go there pretty soon.

One reason we are not going cashless is merchants still love cash because it is relatively cheap to accept compared to credit cards given interchange fees. Cheaper to accept that is, for the merchants. We often think that cash has no cost. Not true. It's simply that the cost of cash is in large part borne by the taxpayer. Taxpayers pay to have money printed and minted, transported, etc. If that cost were passed onto merchants the same way credit card transaction costs are, cashlessness would be welcome rather quickly.

[vanillabean]

Interesting enough, the most cashless countries also appear to be the countries with the least online fraud!

[Anonymous]

Going cashless also requires or at least benefits greatly from having access to electronic communications wherever the transaction takes place. Outside of checks most forms of cashless payment require some type of electronic transaction. With Europe they are much smaller and can cover their entire physical country with Internet service. That is not true here in the Western US. There are huge areas of land here that have no Internet access and the cost to put it in would be prohibitive. Where I grew up the population is very rural, in fact ranches and farms of 10,000 acres often have 2-3 people on them. It is also a very cash central area, I currently live in Denver and if I hand someone several hundred dollar bills for payment they dislike it with a lot of merchants refusing anything over 20's. Back in Montana where I grew up I can hand over 5k+ in cash and they don't bat an eyelid, just put the cash in the bottom drawer of the till to deposit at some point later.

[Imperfectfuture]

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@yfan wrote:

We are not going cashless anytime soon as a country, but parts of the country will go there pretty soon.

One reason we are not going cashless is merchants still love cash because it is relatively cheap to accept compared to credit cards given interchange fees. Cheaper to accept that is, for the merchants. We often think that cash has no cost. Not true. It's simply that the cost of cash is in large part borne by the taxpayer. Taxpayers pay to have money printed and minted, transported, etc. If that cost were passed onto merchants the same way credit card transaction costs are, cashlessness would be welcome rather quickly.

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Like this part.

[Anonymous]

It brings up an interesting point with a cashless society that it costs more to make a penny or nickel than the coin's actual worth.  I still like the concept of having actual currency though I do use my credit card for the majority of transactions for bonus miles or points.  

[SOGGIE]

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@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:

Interesting enough, the most cashless countries also appear to be the countries with the least online fraud!

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+1...Good point.

[Anonymous]

Cashless society is what the gov actually wants to keep track of everything that you buy(already doing that if using credit), and you can say goodbye to whatever privacy you have left. One after another you will be losing your rights to be an independent FREE human being. 

For the criminal bankers this will be the cream. Money for nothing!