this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
25 points (100.0% liked)

AusFinance

985 readers
2 users here now

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Before we go cashless, fees need to be 0%. Start by fixing that.

We need to use EFTPOS instead of visa and MasterCard.

0% for banking and spending your own money.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Businesses should just factor merchant fees into sticker price much the same way they would (should?) be factoring in the cost of carrying cash, as consumers we wouldn't even notice. And yes, cash does have a cost (time taken traveling to/from the bank or ATM, risk of loss or theft on the way etc).

Don't pay bank account fees as an individual, please.. there are so many ways to get free banking.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's not free to run a payments network. So who should pay for it? Tax payer funded?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Who pays to design, print/mint, transport cash? It's always been taxpayers

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Two options:

Don't go cashless.

Go cashless but fees = $0.

Idgaf how it works, but it's asinine to have a $4 a month account keeping fee and pay per transaction to store and spend your own money. If it gets any worse I'll be pulling all my cash out and going cash only for everything.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Coincidentally, while reading this over my morning coffee earlier, an email reminder came through from my daughter's school, for the Father's Day stall tomorrow.

It got me thinking there must be millions of tiny little use cases for cash, where tap and pay just isn't feasible.

Not sure what the answer is, but I do believe a cash-reduced society should be the ultimate goal.

But privacy is also a concern. I really wish my bank would introduce a tap and pay app, rather than me having to use Google Pay.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I refuse to use Google's services. They are not a bank, they're an advertising company who's major goal includes knowing everything about everyone. They can fuck off. I agree, the banks need their own apps so we're not beholden to a foreign surveillance corporation to use contact-less phone based transactions.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, I'm on a de-Googling journey myself right now. It's not easy, as I (naively, maaaany years ago) hosted my domain on Gsuite, so getting everything out without disruption is (intentionally, on Google's part) difficult.

I really need to just sit down, map out everything I still have with them, and work out the right order of execution to unpick everything. It's a real PITA.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cashless reduced society still leaves millions of people without access, no thanks!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I didn't say cashless - I said cash-reduced. We need to remove cash from situations where it shouldn't be a requirement, such as gambling venues. While privacy is a fundamental human right, it provides criminals the ability to hide behind a cloak of anonymity.

I believe the goal should be as cashless as we can be, without disadvantaging groups of people that can only use cash.

But that would require a government brave enough to create strong enough laws to safeguard our personal data from abuse and misuse. Not only to stop Big Tech and other megacorps from using our data without consent, but also to punish those responsible for not protecting our data properly, including deletion when it's no longer required (fucking Latitude).

Might as well hope to win the big Powerball prize - both seem equally likely right now...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My sons after school care had some fundraising stalls run by the kids with cookies, raffles etc. The first day was cash on,y and many parents didn’t carry any. Day 2, they had set up a cashless payment method.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Our school's PFA has cashless available for things like the 2nd hand uniform stall, democracy sausages, things like that.

But the Father's Day and Mother's Day stalls are a rite of passage for primary school kids, and tap and pay is impossible in that scenario.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whys that? I don’t see it as different.

This was for kids run stalls and games. I don’t think they did tap and pay, from memory. It was scan a QR code and pay online.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm talking about the stalls where kids buy (during school hours) gifts for their parents.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, ok. We don't have that. Ours are after school. However for other kid purchasing activities (they ran a games carnival for fund raising) they could purchase things with tokens rather than cash. Tokens could be bought electronically.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I don't know why our school hasn't done something similar. We have an app where we can order and pay for lunch orders. Surely they could implement tokens or vouchers for stuff like this.

That said, I think a big part of it for the kids is having some coins in their hands, and shopping for stuff, calculating what they can afford, how much they'll have left, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yes, we have a similar app for lunches. Not clanky but it works fine.

It should help to train them for a cashless future, lol. I was in a toystore recently and I noted the check out had a contactless payment terminal and phone!

I did note myself that playing shop in the playground, my kids were unfamiliar with the process of shopping due to covid meaning I didn't take them into supermarkets much up until last year. They had no concept of change. I pay everything on phone and don't carry cash.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There’s voucher systems for school stalls beings used. You buy a $5 voucher through the app and then all the gifts are either $5 or $10 at the stall. Works out cashless and pretty handy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I dunno why our school isn't doing that yet. There's an app where we can place and pay for lunch orders. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to introduce a pre-paid voucher system, to use at these things.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We can skip cashless and and jump straight to moneyless with the current economy /s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

plenty of people are already there

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

You have to be able to have a backup. Right now if you lose your bank cards, your bank might not even have a face to face branch to get cash from, and it might take 2 weeks in the post. It’s also harder for older people to keep up with the technology changes, also for people who don’t have access to the internet (or internet banking).

It’s great for a lot of us (I haven’t used cash in about 2 years I reckon), but I am worried people will be left behind if there’s no other payment system in place.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This sounds petty but I like talking illicit substances on occasion. Generally, these are only paid for in cash, I know some people take bank transfers but I don't want a paper trail leading in either direction.