QOTW: Are we ready for cash-less high streets?

[theleader]

In the near future, I see high streets void of shops except for food banks with tins of Soylent Green in plentiful supply. No one will have any money due to all work done by AI robots which are also planning revolution! (Not good!)

Any electronic money systems will ever suffer front rampant electronic forgery by snotty nose kids, therefore wiping out any value the electronic pound may have had or viruses designed by nasty people to destroy the banking system or over head nuclear bomb using the EMF generated to send us back to the stone age, a present front North korea. Digi watches may not work after such an event!

Any power cuts or computer problems in the cashless control system, instantly reduces everybody to the same level of spending power ie broke & with mounting brokeness due not being able to service expensive and excessive rates of interest from your local friendly payday lender! (broken legs not included!)

The high street banks will probably vanish completely due to a cashless society! Bank robbers will be unemployed!

At least in a cashless society, it would cure the moral problem when you are given a forged note in your change and what to do with it! take to the police etc and therefore lose the spending power of it or pass it on to some snotty nose checkout person!

[pp05]

No we're not.

Yes we are using cards for greater number of transactions, when they get the mechanism right we will use our phones to pay for stuff also. However I do not want a society that is totally cashless as that one is ripe for the state to control who what and when you can do something.

[cjb110]

i hope it comes asap, coin change is a utter waste of time and effort. Scrap anything less than 10p too.

Use your phone or contactless card or watch.

[davesom555]

A lot of it is cashless now; it's just the last mile that isn't 100%.

I agree with some previous points that cash-less would possibly cause people to spend more due to the psychological aspect of you not seeing immediately your money diminishing. It's not necessarily a good idea from a consumer point of view!

[TooNice]

One of the thing I wonder about going cashless, is how that is going to work out for minors, short-term immigrants and tourists. I imagine that the card will have to be linked to some kind of bank account, but depending on the country, may not be available until a certain age. People on temporary leaves may also have difficulty opening bank accounts, again depending on the country. And unless the cost of foreign transactions is decreased significantly, tourists going to a card-only country could end up paying quite a lot as they add up all the micro-transactions (coffee, snack, transports etc.).

I am not convinced we are ready. I am convinced it can be done eventually, but it'll take time and a lot of investment in establishing a cost effective, efficient infrastructure.

Japan, at the moment is basically an efficient antithesis of a cash-less society. The infrastructure is in place to pay almost everything by cash. Even utility bills and pretty much every on-line orders can be paid in cash either through a convenience store available everywhere, or in the case of online orders for products, can be paid on delivery directly to the courier knocking on your door.

[Bambooz]

I been looking strange at people with cash for last decade.. seriously who uses cash any more.

People who don't want every single move/bought item tracked.

[jonah]

I really don't want all my spending tracked. I get enough spam and "helpful" adverts as it is.

[SineWave]

I been looking strange at people with cash for last decade.. seriously who uses cash any more.

I do and I pay for everything with cash. A cashless society is a controlled society.

Finally somebody with brains who understands a few things about this.

I also pay with cash everywhere and resent using a card. Paying with cash is some of the last freedoms they want to take away from you. First thing about using a card is - they can track everything you pay for. Second thing about using cards is - the highway robbers that call themselves bankers these days make money on every transaction you make, which is not the case if you use cash.

Think about it. Cheers!