Cash is for losers!

“Futurists and currency buffs have been predicting for years that some digital gadget or other would kill off cash, credit cards, and checkbooks. That process is already far along outside the U.S.,” Felix Gillette reports for Businessweek. “But after years of consumer indifference, mobile payments are about to make the leap in the U.S. from foreign-sounding novelty to inescapable fact of daily life. In a study in 2013, Forrester Research estimated that the amount of money spent by Americans via mobile payments will reach $90 billion in 2017, compared with $12.8 billion two years ago. Over the next several years, ‘mobile payments will move toward the mainstream,’ Forrester analysts wrote.”

“Whichever companies lure the most consumers and merchants onto their product stand to reap billions of dollars in transaction fees while also accumulating deep treasure-troves of valuable data about purchase habits,” Gillette reports. “In October, Apple jumped into the arena, rolling out Apple Pay, a system that allows people to make store purchases with a fingertip reader on their iPhones. Facebook is expected to join the fray as well. On Nov. 17, Snapchat introduced a tool called Snapcash that allows users to send each other money through the popular ephemeral messaging app.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Castlebuono” for the heads up.]

25 Comments

    1. Try bailing someone out of Jail ….. They ONLY accept cash and it has to be exact amount …. Cannot be over or under, exact amount only is accepted but don’t bring pennies, they frown on that ….

      As for paying taxes our local government accepts, with a convience fee attached as well as DMV.

  1. Debt is for losers!

    If sticking to CA$H is your method of staying out of debt, of NOT becoming an indentured servant to the parasitic banks and lending companies, then good on ya! Seeing as cash means more profit for retailers (no card service fees), I think they’ll be happy to continue taking your cash into the foreseeable future. 😀

    1. You just hit on something and not sure if you realize it.

      Cash only businesses are not only restaurants. Business A decides to keep all the profit by not paying a middleman (credit card company) a percentage fee. All power to them to choose how to conduct personal business, although they are in the minority.

      Cash only also leaves no trace to pay the hooker on the corner or the drug dealer in the next block TAX FREE.

      It is what it is …

  2. I started using cash almost exclusively a couple months ago after the Home Depot data breach caused me to need a new Visa card.

    Using cash actually causes you to be more careful with your money and what you spend it on. Plus, no one can track you with cash unlike all electronic forms of payment, including ApplePay.

    But I’m just a paranoid kind of guy. Oh wait, what’s that black Suburban that just pulled up in front of my house…

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