Card-based transactions becoming so pervasive has made me wonder if countries should start redirecting their efforts to building nationalised payment infrastructure that would allow citizens to transact electronically with zero fees, rather than their main function being managing and printing physical currency. Maybe some countries have done this already, but in Australia at least we're basically building our entire payment infrastructure on top of Visa and Mastercard.
'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
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Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#12Anecdote: I've never seen this. I have seen "cash only" still, though.
I live in Oakland and it's getting more and more popular here in order to avoid theft. SF I think requires you to take cash as legal tender though so it's not allowed there.
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#13Card-based transactions becoming so pervasive has made me wonder if countries should start redirecting their efforts to building nationalised payment infrastructure that would allow citizens to transact electronically with zero fees, rather than their main function being managing and printing physical currency. Maybe some countries have done this already, but in Australia at least we're basically building our entire…
I believe much of the EU has done that. The US is going in a similar direction with FedNow, although at typical US pace.
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#14On the flip side, it has never been easier to become banked in the US. Chime & Co. have lowered the entry difficulty for fundamental banking services for the poor. And loading cash is trivial, walk into any number of thousands of stores (such as Walgreens which charges no fee). You see these cards commonly used by poorer Americans across all of retail now.
Chime is not a bank; it’s a financial services company. This distinction is important: people who depend solely on bank-adjacent financial services are more likely to lack access to ordinary banking services for the reasons mentioned in the article.
That's well and good but isn't the article about the impact of businesses going cashless? I talk to a lot of homeless and other low income people through some work I do and they generally have a Venmo card or something like that and don't have an issue with cashless transactions.
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#15> A recent Bankrate survey shows basic monthly service fees range between $5 and $15. Beyond these steady fees, banks earn $4 to $5 each time people withdraw cash from an ATM or need services like getting cashier’s checks. Unexpected bills can result in overdraft fees of about $25 each time an account is overdrawn.
are there no free bank accounts in the US?
in the UK you can pay to be ripped off and have a "premium" bank account with added benefits such as crappy breakdown/mobile phone insurance
but most have a free bank account with no monthly fee
withdrawing from almost all ATMs is free (non-bank owned ones charge everyone, e.g. in an airport)
all but very large transfers (>£1 million) are free and instant
overdrafts are optional and it's difficult (but not impossible) to go overdrawn without one
and no overdraft means no credit check needed
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#16I want to highlight an adjacent point: The Bank Secrecy act was established in 1970 and the $10k back then had the same buying power as $78k now. Its fucking bullshit that this law has not been repealed. With crazy inflation over the past few years $10k of cash is a fairly trivial sum. In SF, if you paid 2 months of rent in advance your landlord would have to go through extra acrutiny.
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#17Dumb guy question: why does the US government not offer all citizens a bank account? Is there some constitutional reason against it?
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#18>The FDIC calls people without a bank account “the unbanked.” People with a bank account but who primarily rely on alternative services such as check cashing outlets are called “the underbanked.”
>The next time you see a sign in a shop or restaurant window stating “No cash accepted,” you’re really looking at a business excluding many unbanked and underbanked people.
Speaking of the US, I would like to know how much overlap there is between businesses that don't accept cash and people who are unbanked or underbanked. My limited exposure to no-cash businesses suggests these establishments are not losing/excluding customers as these were not places that would be patronized by un/underbanked consumers. But I'm not confident where I live and where I have seen this practice is indicative of generalizations.
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#19Why are businesses no longer accepting cash? What are the positives and negatives for businesses?
What are the positives and negatives of accepting cash for businesses? Other then 6 million people across the united states cannot buy from your shop.
I can guess at reasons for both but I do not run a business.
Re: 'No cash accepted' signs are bad news for unbanked Americans
#20> A recent Bankrate survey shows basic monthly service fees range between $5 and $15. Beyond these steady fees, banks earn $4 to $5 each time people withdraw cash from an ATM or need services like getting cashier’s checks. Unexpected bills can result in overdraft fees of about $25 each time an account is overdrawn. are there no free bank accounts in the US? in the UK you can pay to be ripped off and have a "premium"…
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