Cashless Society - Do You Support It? [Poll]

Trying2SaveABuck on 04/09/2024 - 07:16
Last edited 04/09/2024 - 07:43 by 1 other user

Gloria Jeans is starting to drop cash, ive noticed other shops have 'card only' signs

https://www.9news.com.au/national/gloria-jeans-cafes-cashles…

as someone who pretty much exclusively pays card/Pay Pal/Bpay for stuff in 2024 im interested to here on if Ozbagrain would support a 100% cashless society

Ill try be balance the three main arguement against a cashless society are

  1. card surcharges the only way for businesses/consumers to 100% avoid this is via paying cash
  2. Many 'businesses' (cough) tradies tend to do the side cash jobs giving a decent discount, anyone who has owned a house for longer then a few years would have experience with this
  3. some people mostly older generation just like paying in cash or do not trust the banks/government etc to use card.

the arguments for cashless are obvious it is quicker, more efficient, better for the environment, safer for businesses and consumers etc

Do you support a cashless society?

My answer is 100% support but the government bank account garentee needs to be set an unlimited level or much higher level (opposed to the 250k it is at now) as you essentially have no choice but to keep your money in the banks - for the record my bank account is sitting on $112 at time of posting but others might be richer then I

Poll Options

  • 73
    Yes, I support a cashless society.
  • 166
    No, I do not support a cashless society.
Financial

Comments

  • soan papdi on 04/09/2024 - 07:18

    Are they still going to charge the extra for CC? If so, that's technically illegal. Bob Katter is not gonna be happy.

    • Trying2SaveABuck on 04/09/2024 - 07:20
      -1

      HSBC 2% cashback on purchases under $100 solves this problem for 97% of transactions

      • soan papdi on 04/09/2024 - 07:23
        +14

        Bollocks, no one should need to sign up to a specific card just to get around the illegal action of cafes. Frankly, we're slowly turning into USA with the tipping culture being forced on us by the QR code apps too.

        • Trying2SaveABuck on 04/09/2024 - 08:30

          Wwhooooaaa i support cashless not tipping thats a completely different arguement

          I agree u shouldnt have to sign up to anything and no is saying you have too

    • MorriJ on 04/09/2024 - 13:15

      My local cafe does not accept cash, accepts CC for the payments with surcharges added at the time of payment but smartly offers the option of BPAY (with 3 days clearance required) to pay for your coffee or sandwich. It does mean if you want to head into the store and buy and pay for something; they are technically probably offering the advertised price (if you transferred them via BPAY 3 days ago) otherwise you are slugged the surcharges.

      What a time to be alive!

      • soan papdi on 04/09/2024 - 13:21

        they are technically probably offering the advertised price (if you transferred them via BPAY 3 days ago) otherwise you are slugged the surcharges.

        Debatable if they don't want to accept BPay if it takes time. You should take them up on the offer to pay via BPay and see what they say.

  • sw0rdy on 04/09/2024 - 07:38
    +1

    $113 here

    • FiDad on 04/09/2024 - 14:29
      +1

      look at the Mr money bags here

  • HamBoi69 on 04/09/2024 - 07:44
    +8

    All well and good until there is some internet/server outage….

    • mapax on 04/09/2024 - 07:51

      That’s happened to me at least 4 times this year so far, 3 at the servo and once at Coles. Each time I had backup cash in my wallet whilst all the perma-chilldren were throwing a tantrum at the staff like it was their fault.

    • noz on 04/09/2024 - 09:45
      -2

      Couldn't you reduce this risk by having, say, a couple of accounts on different banking networks? e.g. most of your money in UBank, and a smaller amount in Macquarie.
      I realise this doesn't help in all situations, e.g. if the outage is at the point of sale - however in a cashless society scenario you'd think retailers would put in redundancies as they stand to risk losing big money during outages.

      • HamBoi69 on 04/09/2024 - 09:50
        +7

        Doesn't help if the entire EFTPOS, Visa or MasterCard system goes down.

        • noz on 04/09/2024 - 11:19

          How often has EFTPOS, Visa and MasterCard all gone down at the same time? (Real question, not arguing).

          • HamBoi69 on 04/09/2024 - 12:29
            +1

            @noz: Well when they operate via 4G or with the recent CrowdStrike outage

          • Trance N Dance on 04/09/2024 - 13:45
            +1

            @noz: It doesn't have to be the individual networks going down but rather the service provider (eg Westpac, ANZ, CBA, NAB, Tyro, Square, etc) and that will stop any payments from happening regardless of which type of card it is.

  • nubzy on 04/09/2024 - 08:21
    +2

    Absolutely not. And I am noticing the changes too. Often Woolworths only has one or two cash self checkouts. Others are marked cash and card, but are out of order all the time. Very frustrating waiting in line and people queing up behind you wondering why you are waiting when there are empty checkouts. I like using cash and don't want endless transactions on my bank account.

  • Subere on 04/09/2024 - 08:23
    +2

    Maybe cashless is viable when it's all on the blockchain and decentralised so you're not relying on/trusting the banks?

    Opens can of worms

    • Gervais fanboy on 04/09/2024 - 08:25
      +6

      No way the establishment allows anything to stay unregulated for long enough

      • 7ekn00 on 04/09/2024 - 12:28
        +1

        Yep, it's known as Central Bank Digital Currencies and they will be coming to replace cash soon enough …

        Then the government can track all your money, knows every cent you get and spend, can assign you carbon limits and know exactly how much to tax you ;)

        • Gervais fanboy on 04/09/2024 - 12:33

          I know and thats partly to do with my reservations against a digital only transactional society, libs will call me a conspiracy theorist for it but so be it.

    • Trying2SaveABuck on 04/09/2024 - 08:33

      Im not against block chain it is a good idea is someone cab get it to work unlike the ASX which wasted 100s of millions and failed

    • Drpepper666 on 04/09/2024 - 08:48
      +2

      I don't want my transactions visible to everyone forever. Blockchain= fail

      • neoleo on 04/09/2024 - 10:58

        Not all blockchains are the same. Certain blockchains can be more privacy friendly.

    • DingoBilly on 04/09/2024 - 09:41

      Yes, I sure prefer trusting an anonymous person who created it all to take care of my money. Especially in a blockchain that's easy to hack, can be permanently lost if I lose some phrase, has no tech support, and to top it all off everyone can see every single thing I purchase for eternity and I have no privacy.

      People act like decentralised is the best way forward, but there's a lot of good reasons why centralised is actually very useful, especially if you're thinking long-term security for your money.

  • overthinking on 04/09/2024 - 08:29

    absolutely not, how to fast track dystopia 101

  • sandman20104159 on 04/09/2024 - 08:32

    its far quicker to pay via cash at checkouts and bars/resturants. when you next at one of those place, time how long it takes for a person to get phones out and unlock and tap and pay and watch them frak around to get it working, then time how long it takes to grab a note out of your wallet and pay and get change. far far more uicker. and i love cash in pocket, make me know how much i actaully have. if a resturant or place doesnt accept cash, then see ya ill take my business else where. IM LOOKING AT YOU NANDOs

    • Trying2SaveABuck on 04/09/2024 - 08:58

      Bloody Nandos great chicken though!

      • sandman20104159 on 04/09/2024 - 10:09

        yeah, of all the chicken places this is tops!

    • EFC94 on 04/09/2024 - 13:17
      +1

      Not sure if your comment is satire or not? I can pull out my phone and have it tapped on the screen and paid for in under 5 seconds. Watching someone paying by cash they either spend a minimum 15 seconds trying to find the exact change, or they whip out a $50 in 5 seconds and then wait another 15 seconds for the cashier to tap it in on the screen and pull out the change.

  • SmiTTy on 04/09/2024 - 08:40
    -2

    I'm very much for a cashless society. The cc fees are annoying.

    It's too tempting though when my local restaurant offers me a 5% discount if I pay cash, or a 1.5-2% fee for paying by cc. The variation of 6-7% is enough for me to find cash just for eating there!

    • El cheepo on 04/09/2024 - 14:54

      I'm very much for a cashless society. The cc fees are annoying.

      Okie dokie then.

      But what on earth is this?

      It's too tempting though when my local restaurant offers me a 5% discount if I pay cash, or a 1.5-2% fee for paying by cc. The variation of 6-7% is enough for me to find cash just for eating there!

      That wouldn’t exist in a cashless society…
      But you want cashless despite it regularly incurring fees?

  • onetwothreefour on 04/09/2024 - 08:51
    +5

    As long as my kids schools keep asking for gold coin donations then I still need to use cash.

  • 0FoxGiven on 04/09/2024 - 08:54

    All for cashless. That way all the ppl cheating the system taking cash in hand for stuff and paying no tax may finally have to pay their due without increasing the tax burden on others.

    • Protractor on 04/09/2024 - 09:34
      +7

      "Big corporate" dodges more tax than a dozen black cash economies.
      We need govts that have the gonads to end cartels like the fuel thieves long before we need to tinker around the edges. Removing cash will just assist the 'suited' thieves and money launderers.
      And what do you think the gimps in Canberra will do with all the extra taxed funds from the cash jobs? Hint, handball it to the big corporates in one form or another.

    • Gervais fanboy on 04/09/2024 - 09:37
      -2

      I know right, everyone should pay their fair share so that our already very responsible governments can fund proxy wars and subsidise billion dollar companies/big pharma companies etc. I couldn’t think of a more noble venture..

      • SBOB on 04/09/2024 - 09:54
        +7

        our already very responsible governments can

        Pay for infrastructure, health, schooling, support services including disability, aged and unemployment safety nets

        But yeah, it sounds better when you say it all just goes to "defence" and big pharma.
        :)

        • Jake D on 04/09/2024 - 10:19
          +4

          He thinks he's on USAbargain

          • Gervais fanboy on 04/09/2024 - 10:27

            @Jake D: What did I say exactly that only applies to the US and not AU?

        • Gervais fanboy on 04/09/2024 - 10:25

          Hi, long time

          Anyways, my point being - worry about leeching more money from the tax payers once you stop wasting most of what you are already getting.

          Pay for infrastructure, health, schooling, support services including disability, aged and unemployment safety nets

          Most of those sectors are very poorly managed and the only fixes applied is throwing more and more money at them but I get it, you’d wanna say stuff that sounds good to the emotive mind.

          • SBOB on 04/09/2024 - 11:02
            +1

            @Gervais fanboy:

            you’d wanna say stuff that sounds good to the emotive mind.

            Your comments are literally textbook 'emotive mind' examples.

            • Gervais fanboy on 04/09/2024 - 11:04

              @SBOB:

              Your comments are literally textbook 'emotive mind' examples.

              Literally? lol
              And that’s all you had to say? Hmm. Nice chat.

        • Gnostikos on 04/09/2024 - 14:17
          -1

          @SBOB

          Pay for infrastructure, health, schooling, support services including disability

          Imagine being this much of an ivory tower, masochistic bootlicker.

          All of those services and industries are beyond repair and woefully inadequate precisely because they've been so hopelessly mismanaged and poorly-funded for decades.

          It must be nice never driving, using public transport, needing reliable energy/utilities, raising children, studying for a career, needing medical care of any kind or having much of a life to begin with outside of being OzBargain's self-appointed minister of combatting "wrongthink" but in the real-world, anyone who interacts with these facets of our government-provided services would beg to differ.

          Or do you just enjoy being bent over for the sheer vicarious thrill of it all?

      • liquornoodlescabbage on 04/09/2024 - 10:25
        +2

        Not sure if you've submitted a tax return recently but you get a nice little breakdown of what it's spent on. On mine welfare (majority pensions) was 40%, health 20% and defence 8% there abouts. I'd say that's fairly reasonable.

  • Bignudge on 04/09/2024 - 08:55
    +1

    Cash for the win! I used to love using card so I didn't have to deal with loose coins… but the final straw for me was finding out that basically all the fuel stations that I use slap on a card surcharge (whether you insert and go through Eftpos or tap and go through Mastercard/Visa).

  • Ryanek on 04/09/2024 - 08:56

    In 20 years, the concept of little pieces of plastic to trade for goods and services will seem very antiquated.

  • Fredfloresjr on 04/09/2024 - 08:59
    +1

    Had my car PPF'd, $5500 for eft, $4200 for Cash lol, and we all know why!!! Avoid tax!! haha

  • Puglife on 04/09/2024 - 09:18
    +2

    Will the homeless start accepting PayPass?
    And how will I ever keep my windscreen clean?

    • humperdoo on 04/09/2024 - 15:17

      QR codes like china.
      I don't know what percent the banks charge when I bought a beer for under $1 but I wasn't charged a fee from a mum and pop convenient store.

  • Dollar General on 04/09/2024 - 09:19
    -1

    For businesses, allowing cash comes at a cost for them, just like cards do. They should be able to charge a fee for cash as they can for cards to recover the costs

    • djkelly69 on 04/09/2024 - 09:33
      +1

      They should at least recognise that there are costs to the business either way (albeit one being somewhat more indirect), not charge any surcharges, and price accordingly.

    • Gervais fanboy on 04/09/2024 - 09:34

      Oh really?

      So the business charging a surcharge on Eftpos payments whilst offering little discounts on cash payments must be completely insane then.

      • Dollar General on 04/09/2024 - 09:50

        All I’m saying is the RBA should allow businesses the option to surcharge for cash. It’s up to each business to decide if they do or not.

  • stuffandthat on 04/09/2024 - 09:20
    +2

    Already being forced into it. I can't deposit cash into my Macquarie account. There's no ATM's within 15km of me to deposit into my NAB or Westpac accounts. Luckily, I've just discovered that I can deposit cash into my accounts at AusPost stores.

    • pjetson on 04/09/2024 - 09:42

      The "big 4" banks signed a deal to allow fee-free withdrawls and balance checks on their ATMs for all "big 4" customers.

      Many banks (although notably not ANZ) signed up with Auspost for withdrawls (and I think deposits).

      Some non-bank ATMs (atmx for example) also have fee-free withdrawls and balance checks for some banks.

  • kohno83 on 04/09/2024 - 09:37
    +3

    I'm all for going cashless as soon as all businesses stop charging surcharges!

    Going away from cash = they have less discrepancies and not needing to handle cash, and tallying up at the end of the day… everything is done via software… so why are consumers paying for additional convenience?

  • DingoBilly on 04/09/2024 - 09:38
    +2

    Cashless all the way.

    Cash is a pain in the ass. It's easy to lose, requires dealing with change and finding uses for the change, if you want to earn interest you have to then find a bank/ATM somewhere to deposit it, it's slow/inefficient compared to paying by card, you don't earn any rewards points or anything for it, it presents a security risk for businesses, it presents an operational challenge for businesses (having to deposit excess cash, having to have small notes on hand for larger cash payments), and lastly it's an easy way to avoid paying tax (which might be a benefit for some).

    Honestly besides avoiding some CC surchages (pay by EFTPOS solves this), for trying to avoid the government/wanting to not be traceable as you're a conspiracy nut, or for tax evasion, there's not much going for cash. And most of the pros aren't exactly amazing pros.

  • askbargain on 04/09/2024 - 09:56
    +1

    Gift cards are my main form of payment.

    • ThithLord on 04/09/2024 - 10:20
      +1

      Easiest way to pay your taxes, too

  • 6079 Smith on 04/09/2024 - 10:26
    +10

    The hypocrisy of small businesses claiming that taking card costs them money because of bank fees while completely ignoring the costs of cash really irritates me.

    It completely fails to account for the cost of wages for staff that have to count the till and float at the start and end of the day and the time it takes an employee to take that cash to the bank; not to mention the risks with cash of theft, human error giving incorrect change or counter fitting.

    I’m not saying these two costs are necessarily equal but the belief that it costs nothing to accept cash and 1.5% to take card is bullshit.

    • stuffandthat on 04/09/2024 - 12:34
      +1

      There's a cafe near my work that has signs up about preferring cash. They fail to acknowledge that they EFT their staffs wages, EFT their suppliers bills, and have to deposit the cash they receive at a bank to be able to pay their staff and suppliers.

    • Trance N Dance on 04/09/2024 - 13:56

      There's a different perspective in that the cost of handling cash is fixed and sunk. It costs the same to accept 5 cents in cash as it does to accept $500 or $5000. The moment cash is accepted the cost to handle cash is in most cases fixed unless dealing with extremely large sums everyday preferring and/or requiring armoured transfer but that's also another fixed and sunk cost that is triggered when cash flow is over a certain amount. Whereas the cost of accepting card is incremental, every additional $ accepted has an additional cost on top of fixed costs such as terminal hire and thermal paper.

      If a business chooses to accept cash then it's easy for them to incorporate the cost of accepting cash into their operating costs, and every dollar accepted via card is an additional cost that they have to recoup.

      Yes I am aware with cash there is a theft and loss risk but for easiness sake that's ignored. And yes there are merchants that offer free terminal hire and paper, also ignoring that for easiness sake.

      • 6079 Smith on 04/09/2024 - 15:13

        I’d argue it’s easier to factor an incremental cost into setting prices, eg if I know that I will pay 1.5% on every coffee I sell then I’ll increase the prices of everything by 1.5% and I’m covered regardless of sales volume
        But I see your point

  • tsunamisurfer on 04/09/2024 - 11:02
    +9

    No I do not want a Cashless society.

    There are many legitimate reasons for needing to handle money in physical form, some are :

    1) Paying for Strippers.
    2) Paying for Hookers.
    3) Hiding money outside of a marriage.
    4) Sales and purchases on Gumtree and FBMP.

    • Dollar General on 04/09/2024 - 11:18
      +1

      5) rolling a note to assist with snorting some coke

  • kiriakoz on 04/09/2024 - 11:58
    +1

    I find it funny how polarised people need to be with every single issue. It's obvious that society is changing and part of that is that we're becoming more of a cashless society. Having said that, the people who still wish to use cash have legitimate concerns that we need to solve before we can become cashless. We're becoming like USA where everything needs to be a conspiracy or cause outrage.

    Australian media is so lazy that they import our culture war issues from other countries rather than creating ones of their own and that's sad.

    • Gnostikos on 04/09/2024 - 14:28

      It's obvious that society is changing

      Wow. You figured this out all by yourself?

      I don't think anyone is disputing that society is changing, the entire crux of the problem is to what end is it changing and who will those changes benefit? A select few powerful interests, like major, sweeping societal changes almost always do or the majority of the public?

      We're becoming like USA where everything needs to be a conspiracy or cause outrage.
      Australian media is so lazy that they import our culture war issues from other countries rather than creating ones of their own and that's sad.

      The world is becoming collectively outraged and aligning with reactionary, populist ideologies across the political spectrum precisely because nothing of what we're being told by authority figures, states, governments and corporations matches up with the lived reality of the majority of people in the planet, which has become remarkably sh*t in every measurable metric since 2020 especially.

      The entirety of the Western world but also the majority of the 3rd-world are facing the exact same fundamental issues now, which is precisely why everything seems so reductive in scope (because it fundamentally is) which essentially boils down to a life-and-death struggle between states versus their own populations in a fight for economic, political, strategic and basic subsistence survival. The political/parasitic/exploitative class globally has never felt more threatened for their own future longevity and relevance and the public have never had less trust and optimism in anyone in any position of authority globally than they do now.

      The real question to be asked is, at what point do their empty words become intentional misdirection from their planned agenda and at what point to the mindless zombies of society understand that their goals all along were to make things worse, not better?

  • zealmax on 04/09/2024 - 13:15
    +1

    If we go cashless, how will people be able to evade tax and lie to get social security payments, while driving their lambo?

    • neoleo on 04/09/2024 - 14:54

      Privacy friendly cryptocurrency …

  • randomusername2017 on 04/09/2024 - 13:24

    Username literally does not check out…🤔

  • darkmoss on 04/09/2024 - 13:42

    need cash to buy drugs

  • Seraphin7 on 04/09/2024 - 13:43

    My answer is 100% support but the government bank account garentee needs to be set an unlimited level or much higher level (opposed to the 250k it is at now) as you essentially have no choice but to keep your money in the banks

    There might be an argument for increasing the guarantee level, but a movement to a cashless society ain't it. While I'm aware of cash hoarders out there, anyone who is (legitimately) carrying more than $250k cash is going to be in the extreme minority.

    • Trying2SaveABuck on 04/09/2024 - 13:45

      it isnt 'too' far off the average 20% deposit for a house in Sydney

      • Trance N Dance on 04/09/2024 - 13:59

        And that's Sydney's problem not a federal issue. It was also a program created in the turmoil of the GFC some 16 years ago to essentially prevent a run on the banks, encourage security in deposits so people don't go withdrawing it all and guarantee a collapse on the banking system.

  • PurchaseAnxiety on 04/09/2024 - 14:51

    I'm a bit hypocritical in that I'm almost entirely cashless (I often don't take my wallet when I leave the house), but I also don't want a cashless society. The instances of IT infrastructure going down and leaving many of us without the means to give or accept money are a harsh reminder that it's just a bad idea. God help us if there's any prolonged outage. Not to mention that digital transactions mainly serve to benefit the companies facilitating the transaction. They obviously get their fees, but they also know what you're buying which is a critical piece in the customer profiles they build and sell.

    • neoleo on 04/09/2024 - 16:14

      Most people use phone case to protect their phone. Why not put $50-$100 between phone case and your phone? If you don't like to bring your wallet, this is one solution that when needed you can just take the cash out.

  • jv on 04/09/2024 - 14:57

    Cashless Society - Do You Support It?

    💲💰💲

  • WildZero on 04/09/2024 - 15:07

    My local cafe near the office passes on the surcharge for card payments in the price as they legally can.
    I specifically pay them in cash to avoid this, even if it seems to catch the barista off guard every time 😁

    Similarly in Aldi I won't use contactless payments because of the 0.5% surcharge, when inserting the card and using EFTPOS avoids this.

  • freekay on 04/09/2024 - 16:05

    I support choice.

  • neoleo on 04/09/2024 - 16:09

    Big NO for card surcharge, even someone above mentioned about surcharge via EFTPOS from certain places …

    Most people use phone case to protect their phone. Why not put $50-$100 between phone case and your phone? If you don't like to bring your wallet, this is one solution that when needed you can just take the cash out.

    If you think cash is like insurance, you don't need it until you really need it … Have some cash as a backup at least …

    For all Cash deniers, here are proofs that everyone need to have Cash at least as a backup (news in Australia) :

    https://www.9news.com.au/national/eftpos-outage-woolies-cust…

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-26/commbank-commonwealth…

    https://www.9news.com.au/national/mcdonalds-reports-nationwi…

    https://7news.com.au/news/nab-customers-hit-by-widespread-ou…

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-04/australians-lose-one-…

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-30/will-consumers-have-t…

    https://7news.com.au/sunrise/sunrise-star-monique-wright-exp…

  • b1nch1cken on 04/09/2024 - 16:13

    I definitely do NOT support cashless. When the power goes out or a cyclone hits (I'm in the Far North) cash is the only way to get supplies.

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