Clink Go The Coins!

Cash or Card...

Being brought up with a piggy bank, I always used to have cash with me.

When I turned 15, I got my first KeyCard and have never gone back.

In my purse (oh yeah, I am a guy with a purse), I carry an American Express, two Visa cards, a MasterCard, an Access card and, finally, around my next I wear a PayPass enabled MasterCard.

To me, cash will always have a place in society, but it's place is progressively getting less and less significant. I send money to people through my iPhone. Has worked wonders paying "rent" to Mom. I then also have a record of how much I sent, when I sent it and when the payment was accepted.

My bank statement to me is like a diary. I know where I have been, when I was there. I have found missing emails and documents by being able to know when I paid for something.

PayPass has been a blessing to me, I have my PayPass enabled card in a RFID blocking case, on a lanyard around my neck. It is much more convenient for me to squeeze two tabs together and tap my card as opposed to getting my purse out, finding the correct change and handing it to the operator. Some may call it lazy, I call it quick. Customers are wanting faster service, I believe that using card for the majority of purchases, payment times will be shortened and there is less chance of losing your cash.

I work at a supermarket chain as a register operator and occasionally supervisor. It would make things so much easier and quicker if we had cashless checkouts. No drawers to count. No investigations on drawers that are running low on cash. Much more convenient.

Customers have been educated and the majority of people have changed from old style cheques to newer payment cards. It's only a matter of time until customers are educated that you can transfer money electronically, you don't actually have to hand cash over to someone...

convenience or curse

I could be the one who had a machine randomly spitting notes into my palms when I used my card:
Mmmmmm, convenient!!!
Unless, of course, ALL cash was replaced with cards, nationwide, in which case would it spit cards into my palms instead? Curses!!!

With apologies for the Very Short Post :)

The Payment Rant...

In Australia I was "one of those" annoying smug bitches who didn't carry cash ANYWHERE. All my bills were paid online. AND I'll have you know they were scheduled IN ADVANCE whenever savings levels permitted. It was stupidly satisfying to log into my trusty Online Banking and see a nice tidy list of what was coming out next, how much, and when it would be automatically transferred. No stupid queues at the post office, no carrying around embarrassing phone bills or hideously high electricity accounts, no fiddling with cheques, stuffing of envelopes or traipsing to the post box, and definitely no licking of stamps (can you imagine if the stamp had someone disgustingly ugly on it? And you had to lick the backside? Ewwww....)

When it came time to pay my council rates in Australia, I was just furious. The stupid council was back in the dark ages and only allowed payment by cash in person, or by sending a cheque. Cheque - cheque - seriously? What is this, 1955? Who the hell uses such an antiquated system like handwriting and a signature, in this day and age? Isn't that just asking for forgery and emptying of bank account, via some enterprising thief with an eraser and a few extra zeroes?

I can't jam a 20 euro note into my disk drive to buy that new computer game that looks cool. I can't magic overnight presents to family in Australia via a few notes in my purse. There's no practical way to convert that huge jar of loose coins into becoming a mortgage repayment. But I can buy a drink from a machine, pay for a bus fare, grab a movie ticket, or check in for a flight, all using cards - indeed I could do all these things simply with an old and crappy mobile phone, if I wanted to. No smartphone required.

So why do so many of us still insist on whipping out cash, when we have had electronic payment systems a while now? The fact that some are so old shouldn't stop the newer ones from being used - if anything, the recent "skimming" events in Australia should serve to highlight just how many people, and businesses, have failed to keep up with new technologies like chip & pin, rather than the lame old magnetic swipe (now an ancient 51 years old!!!). We're consumers, people: stand up and demand these businesses give your money more respect. And I don't buy the "privacy" argument. They don't have the right to record your photo and personal details when you hand over cash. Why let them by card? There's a Privacy Act in Australia, people: apart from marketing trends such as how many hamburgers were sold in your suburb last Tuesday, they can't, and don't keep track of you without your permission. If you have objections to what they do track, then rather than switching to cash, stop handing over that "rewards" card before you pay. That's where they are recording personal info about your shopping habits.

These days, I really dislike it when I must carry cash for something. First I have to worry whether there's enough cash in my wallet. If there's enough, I worry it will be stolen or lost. I simply don't like carrying it - it feels "unsafe". If my wallet goes AWOL, I can cancel a card. I can't cancel a cash.

And my view has been strengthened by living amongst arguably the most tech-savvy population in the world (Finland). Finns of all ages learn do pay online as easily as sending email. Most of them pay by EFTPOS as the norm. I no longer find it amazing that cashless is normal, and I get a rude shock each time I remember that Australians often have no option. It's 2011. Almost every household in Australia has a computer; technology covers the entire globe. Isn't it time we moved away from silly old round tokens and bits of paper?

One last request: If public toilets here in Finland can't be made free, I'd like them to invent a fast and easy card system please. I don't wanna have to jangle just to jingle.

Coins are Shiny Delicious!

A Cashless Society! In this, my brain dump, initial thoughts are:

1-Putting a Key Card out of your bra is nowhere as impressive as cash!
2- It would be very difficult for strippers to dance with EFTPOS machines strapped to their??? - not so sexy. (this is your chance to be first to market with cunningly designed transacting knickers)

3 -Will the homeless actually start taking up your offer of a McDonalds feed - instead of turning their noses up at it in?

4 - I misplace my keycard at least twice a week - where does that leave me? (see picture at the end of this post - not posed..thanks Corrine for the evidence)

Perhaps the answer is a microchip. But that could have its own problems. Would bag snatchers become murderers, set to dismember and remove the chips of wealthy folk? You cant just pull off you arm and throw it at them as you run away can you? It'd be a real pain in the.....arm if your chip malfunctioned and needed replacing.

But seriously. I remember there being a movement against barcodes, say about 20 years ago...maybe it was more. Hazy memories of strange looking folk handling out flyers in the street and notice thingos taped to telegraph poles. I thought they were nuts and couldn't quite work out what their problem was.

Perhaps they were projecting into the future? Perhaps they were worried about the day when we would be all issued with National ID cards (as in Nazi Gemany). Perhaps with minds like crystal balls they could see the day when we would all be FRIGGEN MICROCHPPED like our pets and the very last semblance of privacy would be torn from us.

OK, so a little dramatic, and let me put my calm, professional and reasonable hat back on and say, completely flippantly:

1. I like cash because when it comes down to it, as involved in technology as I am, I am at heart a luddite who has a sentimental attachment to the cash economy. As well as books in print (mmmmm..,..breathe that smell in)

2. Coins are shiny delicious and Notes are crunchy.

3. I can not be trusted to retain cards of any description and am at this moment waiting for a replacement of mine, for the 2nd time this year (yes...already)

4. Recently I was walking down George Street and a $20 note blew into my shoe...unexpected thrills are far and few between.

Hmmm..not the most well constructed blog entry. But I love a little SOC every now and then.