Cash Or Card? Will We Have A Choice?

How do you feel about the possibility of a cashless society? With the closure of so many banks, and some shops only accepting cards, does it seem that we are losing options?

According to some studies more than ten million people would struggle to cope in a cashless society, even though only 17 per cent of payments are now made with notes and coins.

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) say that going cashless would cause problems in budgeting and become a major inconvenience for a further 15 million people and, although many of us are using online shopping more frequently, others are still totally reliant on cash transactions.

While some of us benefit from the convenience of cashless transactions, the RSA believes that many of us feel we are being forced into a situation for which we are ill equipped.

Some people see no issue with the changes, but there are those who fear that a cashless society will be one that will allow its citizens to be tightly controlled.

If you have been following world news you will know that the Chinese state has been trialling a payment system  known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), and is claiming that the whole world will one day be using it. It will be a universal currency.

Concerns regarding the system being used to spy on citizens have been raised. Like Bitcoin, which I don’t pretend to understand, DCEP utilises blockchain technology which is described as a digitised ledger. The People’s Bank of China will control the new system and the Chinese government wants to internationalise the yuan (currency of China) to compete with the dollar.

A 2019 study determined that the UK was not then ready to go cashless because so many are still without broadband and even bank accounts; elderly people particularly were being marginalised and for many of the rest of us payment in cash was still an essential part of our lives, despite the closure of so many ATMs and Banks.

Consumer organisation Which? has said that 34 per cent of people asked found they were unable to pay with cash at least once since March. Many businesses now find banking more difficult with the closure of local banks and find it easier to operate without cash.

So should we be worried? Let us know what you think.