Most money transfers in Sweden are made with credit cards
or smartphone apps. Just 2 percent of the Swedish economy is made with bills
and coins, compared with 10 percent in the rest of Europe .
Only 20 percent of consumer payments are made with cash. In the rest of the
world, 75 percent of such payments are made with cash. More than half of the
country’s banks do not carry cash or accept cash deposits! Banks do not want to
bother with cash. If there is no cash money in banks, there is no incentive to
rob them. Security costs are down in the cashless banks. Furthermore, the banks
make money by collecting fees on electronic payments. What is the world coming
to?
How do they do it? At lot of museums, visitors must pay for
entrance with credit cards or phone apps. Cash is not accepted. Stores of
course have been equipped for a while to take electronic payments. But even outside
salesmen can do the same. A magazine salesman uses a credit card reader on his
phone to take payments. He started this when he realized that fewer people
carried cash with them. Since he started using the card reader, his sales have
grown by 30 percent.
Instead of dropping a few kronors into the collection box at
church, parishioners are paying by cell phone. Churches project their bank
account number on a screen so that members can use their phone to make a
donation.
Even street vendors have card readers so that customers can
pay for their hot dogs with credit cards or phone apps. A lot of Swedes no
longer carry cash at all. It makes them feel safer.
There are disadvantages to cashless society. Older people,
who are slower to adapt, can feel marginalized. Younger people, who can take
out loans through their phones, can get over their heads in debt. Electronic payments leave trails that the
government can follow, so there is a loss of privacy as people pay by card and
phone. Even though muggers cannot steal your cash if you don’t have any with
you, sophisticated criminals can find ways to steal your money over the
internet.
This is what is happening to cash in Sweden , but it
is coming here, and faster than you might think. We might as well get ready for
it.
(Source New York
Times 12/27/2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment