Adventure Ausrama Blog

A cashless society will not happen despite predictions by economist and journalists. In the near future some countries could legislate to ban the use of coins and notes. This will be a drastic move. Indeed, people in the United States would argue that it is a protected right in the Constitution if it passed both governmental houses there. A shop would be stupid to put this sign out A myth is promulgated throughout the world that Singapore is a cashless society. This certainly isn't true. Ninety per cent of consumers in Singapore prefer to use cash rather than electronic payment. Just why there is a push to get rid of cash is a mystery. One can understand governments wanting to keep all transactions visible - it will stop tax evasion. However, there would be no benefit for people generally to use cards and transfers to buy everything. Economists and journalists have got the future totally wrong. How could cash be abandoned when it has almost universal appeal? I...

Experts have predicted that Australia will be cashless by 2022. Even Singapore which planned a cashless society cannot do it completely. Non-cash buying has reached 69 per cent. It has remained there. People love money and sometimes they want to see it. If you take it away they will lose confidence in the currency. This is just common sense. Has Singapore made major steps? Note, the world average for electronic purchasing is 66 percent of consumer spending. A pitiful 3 per cent is not a big step! While 79 per cent of Australians say that using mobile phones to make payments will be standard, most still have some cash in their pocket. What they say and what they do is not the same thing. Purchasing electronically, then going to pick it up will be the norm say 81 per cent. Unfortunately, this is not sustainable. Most pre-purchasers go out to physical shops to view what they intend to buy, looking at variants and price. If four fifths of the population actually did p...

We hear from many sources that the cashless society will be here "next week". Apart from Singapore which is very close to its taxation office getting everything legislation permits, other countries are a long way from it. Australians still have cash in their pockets purely because shops are not investing in appropriate technology. A test was done with "equipment" provided by Westpac. The bank app had Mastercard debit and Visa credit cards linked to it. At the first coffee shop the fast pay worked via the Mastercard. The second payment using the linked Visa showed only $1 for a $24.95 bill. Linked Mastercard solved the problem. Another payment made at the next shop worked with Visa. Shop owners and assistants for the most part had not experienced immediate payment yet and certainly did not have the new technology. Westpac will go ahead and launch its payment app whether shops are ready or not. Terminals will be set up across the country. It does...

Whether we like it or not, many people do not carry cash. While the older generation draws money from ATMs and banks to go shopping, young people prefer to carry just a credit card. Most debit cards are held by the aged who do not like to go into credit card debt. In Australia 86 per cent of transactions are made with a card. This puts Australia 6th in the world in the cashless country list. Developing nations still use cash for about half of all payments. Using cards for payments is safer than cash. If felons know a person is carrying cash they could be theft targets. There is another side to a fully cashless society: the taxman will be able to trace all transactions, business and private, if suitable laws are passed to gain access to bank data. At present only the police can view data on a person's financial affairs if they are investigating a crime. This will probably be extended over coming decades to social security and the tax department to make sure people ...