Ask HN: To what extent have digital payments replaced cash in your country? • Hacker News Board

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

#51

Post by DiogoRolo » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:22 PM UTC

jcfariadias wrote: post #23

Portugal: P2P payments - MBWay, has taken over by storam and is the defacto method for transfering smaller amounts of money between peers. For example, rent can be payed to landlords via MBWay, cleaning lady, etc. ATMs support it to. Almost every business allows payment with cards and the central bank is rumored to want to enforce digital payments for every business in the future. Personally, I hardly use cash now, h…

You still have lots of restaurants that don't accept cards, mainly outside cities. They say it's due to the cost of renting the card reader & the transaction costs but I think it's so it's easier to not declare the earnings.

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

#52

Post by drowsspa » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:22 PM UTC

Brazilian here, even beggars accept PIX, the national free electronic transfer system. You can use it to transfer to anyone else by their phone number or email, or to pay bills. Cash is getting less and less common.

I find it funny when crypto bros were claiming it was about "banking the unbanked", when it's not a problem at least in a third-world country in Brazil. Banks are obligated to open at least a very basic bank account for basically anyone.

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

#53

Post by CalRobert » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:22 PM UTC

ShamelessC wrote: post #34

microtheo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I agree, I was going to write the same. But to be honest, I like cash. The feeling of the cash flowing out of your hand is much more palpable than when you use a card :) In Switzerland there is a national app for sending cash to friends that is really handy and popular (TWINT)

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

I assume they mean for sending money instead of the actual physical notes or coins.

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

#54

Post by WJW » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:22 PM UTC

beretguy wrote: post #32

RyanAdamas wrote: post #11

The US Army Corps of Engineers no longer accepts cash for campsites they manage. The US Government no longer accepts its own currency. That's where we are in the USA at least.

Not accepting cash should be illegal everywhere across the world. What if your battery dies?

My bank card doesn't even have a battery.

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

#55

Post by kejaed » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:22 PM UTC

Canada (Ottawa, ON): the only cash I deal with now is for the kids to learn about or for the odd farm stand. Most farm stands have gone to cashless as well.

Canada’s got the Interac system owned by the banks which has merchant fees lower than credit cards and also provides an electronic money transfer system (email or sms based) for the public.

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

#56

Post by OfSanguineFire » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:22 PM UTC

chironjit wrote: post #28

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…

To add, Germany is an outlier when it comes to cashless payment adoption, even (and especially when) compared to its neighbours. Overall, our experience is that it is impossible to be out and about cashless in Germany as there is no telling which bar / beergarten / restaurant / shop only accepts cash.

Germany’s slow adoption of cashless payment is, or at least was, shared with Austria, and even to some degree with Slovenia (which takes after Austria in many ways).

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

#57

Post by chilling » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:23 PM UTC

I have been traveling for some time now, so I can share my experience:

Thailand - mainly cash, QR payment, bank transfer, when paying by card: +3%

Cambodia – cash, cash, cash. Dollars and Riel. When paying by card: +3%-5%

Laos – cash, cash, cash

Malaysia – card and cash, sometimes QR payment, fast transfers,

Indonesia – cash, QR codes, transfers, card in large stores, but the transaction takes a lot of time (they don't know how to use contactless payments)

Palau – cash/card

Taiwan – cash/card

South Korea – cash and metro/city cards. Regular (non korean) cards only accepted at 7/11

Japan – mostly cash. Cards accepted at 7/11 stores and other large stores

Poland – cashless everywhere. Cash is almost non-existent these days

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

#58

Post by wallaBBB » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:23 PM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #15

Netherlands. Only carry cash because I received some as a gift at some point. Only place that I use my cash on is the local barbershop which only takes cash (probably avoids paying taxes that way). I pay everything through contactless payments through my phone or my debit card barring that. Some shops don't even take cash anymore because of how few of their customers paid in cash compared to how risky carrying that c…

Important to note that some shops in the Netherlands do not accept credit cards, and some even debit cards from Visa/Mastercard due to high processing fees (few %, varies from market to market and business to business). What made digital payments dominant in the Netherlands is the iDeal and (now retiring) Maestro cards, which have low fees. EU is looking into implementing something like iDeal at EU level, to popularize card payments. Those few % that Visa/Mastercard take are a lot for some low margin businesses.

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

#59

Post by shmde » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:23 PM UTC

rishikeshs wrote: post #4

Here in India, UPI payments are quite popular. I live in New Delhi the capital and never withdraw cash in my day to day life. The only instance where I have to withdraw cash is when I have to pay rent as my landlord accepts only cash to evade taxes. Apart from these barring very few, at least in cities everything works on digital payments. Please note that card payments are not at all popular in India and UPI is the…

> Please note that cash payments are not at all popular in India and UPI is the most common means of digital payment.

Delhi != India. Cash is still very popular in India and many shopkeepers groan when I ask them to show their QR code for payment.

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

#60

Post by xen2xen1 » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 12:23 PM UTC

xen2xen1 wrote: post #27

I passed by a coffee shop this morning to go to another one in the US Midwest. The one that I passed takes your credit of debit card inside and does it "the regular way. I often forget to give a tip. The one I went to was newer, used square, made me tap or swipe, but I always give a tip since I'm asked and reminded. This seems to be the pattern, newer places tend to be better. Also in the American Midwest, Dollar Gen…

To actually answer your question, even in the small town I live in the the middle of the US, cash is getting a little strange. Most people don't bother to carry cash, and are confused when places don't at least take credit cards. I sizable portion of places will do tap for a debit card and thus NG, but cash only is pretty rare, and I'd personally only expect that in a small, small town gas station or some sort, where they just have never bothered, and probably don't have good internet options anyway.