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Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

nytimes.com

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Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#11

Post by fwsgonzo »

mariefred wrote: post #10
SirLJ wrote: post #6

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 ?

Anyone not selling your data is just sitting on money-making opportunities for no reason. It would be insane.

First thing that popped up: https://www.businessinsider.com/credit-cards-sell-purchase-d...

So, we know they sell anonymized data. We don't know if its easily de-anonymizable because that takes some studying, and we don't know what else they are selling they don't tell you about.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#12

Post by ubernostrum »

toxik wrote: post #7

I see a lot of people worry about "what if the connectivity breaks," but truth be told, I had a lot more fuzz with physical money than digital. I put away a small sum as a contingency for exactly this scenario that I never used, and in fact, I had to go change that money to new bills because they became outdated. It's the same for my spare change; all the coins I accumulated over the years are now invalid. This could…

Are you suggesting that demonetization of existing coins and notes is a more common occurrence than internet outages?

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#14

Post by EZ-E »

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 Paypal.

If the majority of payements are done via mobile (like in China), getting locked out of it arbitrarly via some random fraud detection algorithm means becoming a second class citizen. Try getting around without it in China, it's a pain in the butt

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#15

Post by Numberwang »

robbiep wrote: post #4

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…

Sweden has been more or less cashless for 15 years. I've not had any problems.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#16

Post by Thlom »

robbiep wrote: post #4

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…

Happens in Norway as well some times, but then it automatically switches to a backup system, meaning it just checks that the card is valid and asks for a signature. Then the transactions goes through in bulk when the system is back up. Takes a little bit longer, but it works.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#17

Post by Thlom »

ginko wrote: post #3

Same here in Norway. I can only imagine the mayhem if the internet fell out for a couple of days.

But it happens from time to time and all transactions still goes through with signature. Usually it’s a problem local to the shop, but it’s the same when bankaxept goes down. Everything just takes a bit longer.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#19

Post by PavlovsCat »

ubernostrum wrote: post #12
toxik wrote: post #7

I see a lot of people worry about "what if the connectivity breaks," but truth be told, I had a lot more fuzz with physical money than digital. I put away a small sum as a contingency for exactly this scenario that I never used, and in fact, I had to go change that money to new bills because they became outdated. It's the same for my spare change; all the coins I accumulated over the years are now invalid. This could…

Are you suggesting that demonetization of existing coins and notes is a more common occurrence than internet outages?

That's how it read to me, too. I'm just in awe how stretchable humans can be.

Re: Sweden’s Push to Get Rid of Cash Has Some Saying, ‘Not So Fast’

#20

Post by ACS_Solver »

robbiep wrote: post #4

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.

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