51–60 of 100 posts
I would be willing to bet that once a country goes cash-free that a second underground hard currency of some type will develop. Being able to barter/exchange without being tracked, or without being in the "system" has too many upsides for it not to exist. Maybe bottle caps? :-)
The interesting component to this is what happens when the payment system $hits the bed. 3 weeks ago last friday and saturday in sydney the communications system underlying about 50% of all financial transactions (taxi card readers, many ATMs, many businesses) collapsed with the result that if you didn't have cash you couldn't make an exchange. How robust do people really think these systems are? I certainly have no…
Definitely a concern, but some of the payment methods are independent. Most payments in Sweden are done by card. If that system is down, it should not affect Swish, which is the second most popular way of making payments. A larger Internet outage is a concerning scenario though.
It will only work if it uses direct bank transfers, in which case an outage at your bank or in clearing houses (which is no less likely than an outage at a large payment provider) would take out both debit cards, Swish, and any other means of transfer.
(Note for outsiders: MasterCard Debit is the most common card in Sweden from what I recall)
Cash = anonymity as credit card companies sell your data to Facebook and anyone else...
I understand anonymity from my wife, but do credit card companies really sell your data? and Swish which is operated by the banks ?
It's not that I prefer cash, it's that I don't see involving 100s or even 1000s of third parties in all of my transactions as an 'improvement'.
How will I send my daughter to the baker to buy the morning's bread with her 5 franc coin tucked in her pocket of there's no more cash?
That's how we pay for veggies from farmers. I just fetch 'em at the end of my commute
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you suggesting that demonetization of existing coins and notes is a more common occurrence than internet outages?
I'm not suggesting, I am stating as fact.
Looking at what China is doing is gonna give them more ammunition. I used to love digital payment but I'm getting increasingly wary of it. Look what big private companies did with our data, what will happen when they have all your purchase history and when your daily life depends on them approving your transactions? It's too much power. Look at the many horror stories of people getting their money locked out in Paypa…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not suggesting, I am stating as fact.
Sad that instead of having a discussion about this, my point of view gets downvoted. It's true. Where I live, cash has had more downtime than cards. That is just plain fact.
The major issue I see regarding a cash-free society (which I am part of by living in Sweden) is that it puts a big burden on tourists who have to pay a huge amount of fees when using their own cards in a different currency. It is also a bit similar for expats who, under certain conditions, can't apply for a Swedish person number (think SSN) and thus get a fully activated bank account. No bank account? Good luck doing…
For tourists and Visa/MasterCard paying with a card is usually cheaper than withdrawing foreign cash at ATM.
With ATM you are slapped with a foreign withdrawal fee and you usually get worse exchange rate.
What happened in Puerto Rico and in New Orleans?
No electricity = no money.
The major issue I see regarding a cash-free society (which I am part of by living in Sweden) is that it puts a big burden on tourists who have to pay a huge amount of fees when using their own cards in a different currency. It is also a bit similar for expats who, under certain conditions, can't apply for a Swedish person number (think SSN) and thus get a fully activated bank account. No bank account? Good luck doing…