Are We On The Verge Of A Cashless Society?

If society went completely cashless it sure would complicate blackmarket and other forms of illicit trade. Nothing preserves anonymity like cold hard cash.

No, but a lot of interests want you to go cashless and use their card or app so they can take a little fee off of you. Can't ding you for using cash. Cash is a much more private transaction form. Electronic forms are subject to identity theft too.

This happened to me today:
Went to obtain a travel cash card loaded with Euros, for travel to Europe:

Intended to pay with a debit card, I needed $11,400
Money had to come from another bank. To transfer $14,000 to the target bank I had to pay a fee of $30, for EFT. I avoided the fee, by withdrawing the amount in cash, and paid this amount into my debit card account. (Different bank to those in the story, which follows)


Then went to the cash conversion company to obtain the Euros travel card, and load it. Their card reader would not read my debit card. Went to the bank that issued the debit card. The card read OK.
'Would the cash conversion company accept a bank cheque, drawn against mu debit card?'
'No'

Went to the bank that issued the debit card.
The auto teller has a cash limit of $2,000, so I went to the over the counter teller. They would only let me withdraw only $5,000 in cash, so I had to go to another branch of the same banking company, for another $5,000 in cash and to a third bank for the remaining $1,400.

I finally loaded my travel card with Euros, by paying for it all in cash, before the weekend, when the banks are all closed.

It took me nearly four hours to complete the transaction, which in my opinion, should have taken no more than 10 minutes.
That is how long it would have taken if I had $11,400 in cash to begin with. GRRRRRR !

Through all of this, I paid no fees at all for electronic funds transfers, simply because it was forcibly devolved into the basic requirement of having to pay in cash.


I need a cashless society like I need a hole in the head.

During the depression scrip was issued to substitute for the lack of circulating money. Also now there appears to be a proliferation of "local" currencies to try to keep the wealth and economic energy in the local community.

KK

simply to relaunch this thread.

here are two (short) thought-provoking articles:

http://www.darlingtonandstocktontim...gn-in-banks/

https://www.ubs.com/global/en/wealt...cieties.html

Are we heading into a cashless society? This one got me thinking over the past fifteen minutes or so. The conclusion I draw upon is no. And here is why. The internet came about around 1995. Not long after every industry cried it was the end of them. People still use stamps to mail letters (bills). People still buy newspapers. And the list goes on. However, like all of these, our future pickings will be a mere fraction of what they were prior to 2000. So now, twenty years later, plastic and electronic transfer evolved. Same scenario all over. As for the hobby, that may be a good thing enticing new and young collectors. I know this because I showed my 14 year old niece one of my 1867 Two-Cent and now she collects paper currency. Only time will tell.

Just a thought.

Change comes slowly with everything...but change will always be happening. I like counting my change.

KK

It will still have it's place. There is a huge difference between not using it and being okay with it being abolished. There's always going to be people that want to hide a purchase from their spouses, restaurants/bars ect. Doesn't even get into the fact that the US is a world reserve currency. Cash into going to be abolished in the USA during anyone's life span that is alive right now