No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
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No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
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Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#2I use a credit card for 95%+ of my transactions. At the same time, I'm scared of a cashless future. As the article mentions, cash transactions are one of the last vestiges of privacy that we have. A future where the US looks like China, where all of your transactions are visible, is not something I want to see.
Additionally, cash is an equalizer for the unbanked/underbanked. Financial institutions take advantage of and punish their least profitable customers. Those who can barely afford overdraft fees, monthly checking account fees, etc. are the only ones who are forced to pay them.
Yes, blockchain technologies can solve some of these problems, but there will always be those who are outside of the banking system, lose/don't have a smartphone, etc. Greenbacks are tangible to the person standing in line to cash a paycheck at Western Union - Ethereum isn't.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#3Relevant: MasterCard mines data for marketers (https://www.ft.com/content/089f7cd0-16f2-11e2-b1df-00144feab...)
> MasterCard is analysing transaction data to help marketers direct targeted advertising at consumers, after launching a controversial initiative to make money from its vast database of retail purchases.
Using cash is currently the only way to opt out of this kind of tracking. Being credit card-only is also being anti-consumer-privacy.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#4One thing that Neuromancer had, but we never got, was credsticks.
I want a fee-free electronic wallet that is anonymous.
Also, we really need a law saying that the credit card companies (and others in the toolchain) can't use our data for anything but payment processing. I'm sick of being tracked by my transactions.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#5Of course you can rationalize that 3% is a reasonable cost and approximately a wash compared to the expense of dealing with cash. But if you're a small coffe house, and sell a $3.00 coffee, and are paying a typical 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, that $0.30 is ten percent of your sale. That's a huge cost.
Transaction fees need to come way down for plastic to beat cash on small sales.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#6Where I live (Beijing, China) is far ahead:
- Most (or maybe all) beggars accept mobile payment by WeChat and/or AliPay
- I cannot recall any time in the past year where a shop, fruit stall or street vendor could not accept mobile payment
- There is a high-end food court nearby where none of the restaurants accept cash. If you can't pay by card/mobile, you need to go to a special counter on the ground floor, and exchange cash for some type of voucher
- My haircuts cost 40 RMB (about 6 USD). I tried to pay with a 100 RMB note, expecting a 50 and a 10 in change, of which I would give the 10 back as a tip. The barber struggled to find the right change, as it's so uncommon for people to pay with cash. So I paid via WeChat, and handed him some extra cash for a tip.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#7Of course you can rationalize that 3% is a reasonable cost and approximately a wash compared to the expense of dealing with cash. But if you're a small coffe house, and sell a $3.00 coffee, and are paying a typical 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, that $0.30 is ten percent of your sale. That's a huge cost. Transaction fees need to come way down for plastic to beat cash on small sales.
Or you could just pay 2.75% to Square: https://squareup.com/pricing
They do have plans which include a fixed per-transaction fee on top of a (lower) percentage, but for a coffee shop I'd guess it's worth paying the higher percentage instead.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#8Of course you can rationalize that 3% is a reasonable cost and approximately a wash compared to the expense of dealing with cash. But if you're a small coffe house, and sell a $3.00 coffee, and are paying a typical 2.9% + $0.30 per charge, that $0.30 is ten percent of your sale. That's a huge cost. Transaction fees need to come way down for plastic to beat cash on small sales.
An even more extreme example would be a grocery store, whose overall profit margins are only 1-3%.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#9Where I live (Beijing, China) is far ahead: - Most (or maybe all) beggars accept mobile payment by WeChat and/or AliPay - I cannot recall any time in the past year where a shop, fruit stall or street vendor could not accept mobile payment - There is a high-end food court nearby where none of the restaurants accept cash. If you can't pay by card/mobile, you need to go to a special counter on the ground floor, and exch…
My barber takes cash only. It's caught me out a few times. He has a mobile phone, not sure why he's not set up with Square or something similar I'd think he'd make up for the costs with more business.
Re: No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service
#10Where I live (Beijing, China) is far ahead: - Most (or maybe all) beggars accept mobile payment by WeChat and/or AliPay - I cannot recall any time in the past year where a shop, fruit stall or street vendor could not accept mobile payment - There is a high-end food court nearby where none of the restaurants accept cash. If you can't pay by card/mobile, you need to go to a special counter on the ground floor, and exch…
My barber takes cash only. It's caught me out a few times. He has a mobile phone, not sure why he's not set up with Square or something similar I'd think he'd make up for the costs with more business.
probably isn't claiming the cash on his taxes. He cant make up that difference no matter how many cards he swipes.