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Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

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Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#141

Post by tuhriel »

pr07ecH70r wrote: post #2

Here in Switzerland mostly very old people are using cash. Me personally, I pay always through my phone. I don't even use cards anymore. I have them all in my digital wallet. I've noticed recently a couple of Crypto ATMs. Not 100% sure how they work and who uses them, but the tilt is towards digital here. There are very few vendors left who don't accept anything but cash.

Also, Twint (a p2p and b2c payment scheme) has established itself very well in most places. Even for really small businesses or events as the business only needs a QR code an and no additional hardware

(although the b2c charges for the businesses are quite substantial...)

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#143

Post by theshrike79 »

ecmascript wrote: post #65

Sweden. Unfortunately many stores, shops and similar don't even accept cash. I would say most people don't even carry cash anymore. It's a shame, people just have accepted the modern surveillance society.

Or businesses have accepted the fact that an armed robber can't rob your cash register if it's just a NFC/Chip&Pin reader.

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#144

Post by theshrike79 »

wheels wrote: post #13

Since nobody's chimed in here from Germany yet: Germany's broadly a hold-out. Particularly a lot of restaurants, bars and clubs are still cash-only, and some smaller shops definitely prefer cash. Used cars are, interestingly, almost always cash-only. Person to person transactions (i.e. buying something you pick up in person) are almost always cash. Open air markets (produce, flea markets) are always cash. Electronic…

Germany is a weird country. On the surface they are the top of the line in technology.

On the other hand they still prefer paper money, fax machines and paper forms instead of their electronic versions.

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#145

Post by theshrike79 »

Finland here. Used to carry some cash, even coins, with me. Even had a fancy leather coin pouch on me =)

When COVID hit, I didn't want to touch other people's grubby coins and neither did stores. Day to day everything is card or Apple pay. Nowadays even more with Apple Pay since it doesn't have a spending limit like NFC cards do. Can't be arsed with Chip&Pin any more.

I still have enough cash to get me back home with a taxi at any time of the day on me, but I haven't needed it yet.

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#146

Post by __d »

hiyer wrote: post #113
__d wrote: post #96

Australia here. Most places still accept cash, but approximately no-one uses it. Store staff almost always assume tap-to-pay, and have to cancel the transaction if you pull out cash. Bill payment is done with a pre-authorised debit transaction, credit cards, or using an Australia-only (I think?) system called BPay. Most utilities, etc, have a BPay number, and most (all?) bank apps and websites support BPay payments.…

I visited Australia recently and was surprised to see that many stores (even at the airport) add a surcharge if you pay with a card. I haven't seen that in any other country.

The law preventing that was repealed a couple of years ago. Many businesses have since imposed a fee, reflecting their costs from the payment networks/banks.

The original argument, that it saved them the costs of handling cash, seems to have faded.

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#147

Post by NotYourLawyer »

sofixa wrote: post #115
NotYourLawyer wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or what if you don’t have a bank account?

Bank accounts are a necessary part of modern life in developed and many developing countries, and should be free and readily accessible to everyone.

There are plenty of places to get a free checking account, at least in the US. I don’t really understand why people wouldn’t have one.

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#148

Post by ShamelessC »

microtheo wrote: post #133
ShamelessC wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An app for sending cash? How does that work exactly? Out of curiosity.

Yes, I meant money. Sorry, english is not my first language... It uses the phone number and is linked to your bank account. So it is an automated and instantaneous way of sending money to another swiss bank account. You can also ask someone for money and they can agree to transfer the sum.

Not a problem, I feel bad now for having asked. My confusion was actually more from that being fairly common app now in America (CashApp, VenMo, PayPal, etc.) and so wasn't sure if you were describing something unusual from my perspective or simply weren't aware or...

In any case, it's mostly fine to use "cash" to mean "any form of cash", although I guess this case in particular was just barely ambiguous enough for me to be confused.

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#149

Post by zx8080 »

colesantiago wrote: post #138
zx8080 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> i'm just glad that I don't see crypto anywhere. A honest question, why?

Because crypto is a scam with no use case at all. https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-is-a-scam.html

Was the cryptoscam ads all around the country before? Was it addressing the regular (a non-software, you know) people?

Re: Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country?

#150

Post by jojobas »

dottjt wrote: post #75
jojobas wrote: post #24

Australia: almost all cashless. You only get some cash when you buy a used car, pay a tutor or something else like that. The govt endgame seems to be forcing most of the cash out of circulation, a ban on cash purchases of more that $10000 (with some exceptions) is already in place. https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-10/28454_fa...

It depends where you go, especially dependent upon the town (for example, Springvale in Victoria has a large ethnic Vietnamese community, and a lot of business is done using cash) In addition using cash often saves you money. A lot of restaurants will literally give you a discount if you pay with cash.

These businesses are 100% tax-evading. There has to be a better way to balance the ability to use cash and not have people evade taxation.
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