You still use cash, right? But, you may have noticed that you’re using it less and less. Cash transactions are becoming less common in many countries as electronic card payments, online bank transfers and digital wallets take their place, writes Danie van der Lith.
YOU STILL use cash, right? But, you may notice that you’re using it less and less. Cash transactions are becoming less common in many countries as electronic card payments, online bank transfers and digital wallets take their place. We’ll talk about what life would be like in a world without cash later in this article.
A cashless society is precisely what it sounds like: a world without actual currency exchanges. People utilise alternative payment methods, including electronic transfers, credit cards, and mobile banking, to pay for products and services rather than using cash or coinage like banknotes and coins. These electronic techniques allow for bank-to-bank transfers between people or companies.
However, going cashless can result in financial ruin for many. Consider car guards, street vendors, beggars on the street corner, gas station attendants, and anyone else who depends on cash. Victor Louw, a resident of Kimberley, is one such person.
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Victor is the proprietor of a small arcade in Beaconsfield called Video Fun Games. Since his father established the first arcade gaming store in Durban in the 1970s, arcades have been a part of his family. From 10 cents to 20 cents, to 50 cents, to R1 and R2 coins, that business relied heavily on coins.
Even now, after 14 years of operating his own arcade in Kimberley, Victor says that coins continue to make up the majority of his revenue. He also uses notes, but coins continue to rule.
Victor says that he still has many games priced at 50 cents and a few that accept R1 and R2 coins. “The new card readers are so pricey to convert and my customers won’t have the money to pay for them. I won’t be able to add them to these games.
“It takes a lot longer to make enough money to survive, which we are barely managing to do, so the games are still 50 cents out of consideration for my local customers,” Victor says while giving change to a customer in his shop.
“I also sell small packets of chips, cool drinks and freezies, and I accept coins and notes for payment.”
Victor says that some of the local street children gather glass bottles to sell for money, which they use to buy food, or perhaps just pop in by for a quick game in his shop. However, if cash were to be eliminated from the system, how would that child be supported if he had no other way of receiving money?
According to Victor, removing coins and physical money could potentially hurt a business like his. People might suggest switching to tokens, like many arcades in the malls are doing, he said, but doing so would be very expensive, and if customers took their tokens with them it would cost him more money to replace them.
When Victor’s father, Arnold Louw, 70, entered the store and began chatting to me, it immediately sent me back in time. Arnold loves arcades with a passion that is undeniable. His life, his passion, his love, and his source of income throughout his entire life was arcades, which he began working in in the 1970s.
Arnold showed me every arcade game he still owns, including the very old games I used to play as a kid and also the more recent ones. It evoked wonderful memories that I had thought I had forgotten, even as I was holding one of the vintage guns from a shooting game that was unplugged and stored.
I had pleasant memories of each game whenever he lifted a cloth. I can’t express how grateful I am to Arnold for bringing back so many childhood memories, including the bumper cars I used to ride, the rocket ship, the shooting games, and even the fortune tellers.
The fact that today’s youth won’t be able to experience what my generation did makes me sad, but if they really want to relive the joy of playing arcade games, they should visit Victor’s store.
But come what may, change is coming, and at some point cash will be a thing of the past.
What are the benefits of not trading with notes and coins?
Crime decreases: The absence of cash makes it more difficult for pickpockets. Furthermore, it makes life more challenging for organised criminals who frequently engage in less transparent monetary transactions. Since it’s simpler to track down the source of money in a cashless society, tax evasion and money laundering can both be reduced.
More effective: Printing, keeping and protecting currency requires a lot of time and work. Banks invest a lot of money to safeguard enormous amounts of currency and a lot of energy is put into the printing and minting process. Financial transactions become much more efficient when the physical component is removed.
Facilitating overseas payments: You usually convert your rands into the local currency ahead of time before travelling abroad. However, this currency transaction is likewise unnecessary when there is no longer any cash. The exchange will be handled for you by your mobile device or digital wallet.
But where there are advantages, there are also disadvantages:
Risks to cybersecurity: While eliminating cash reduces the likelihood of individual theft and robbery, it does make hacking more alluring to thieves. Electronic transactions could potentially be hijacked by hackers, who could also steal sensitive data and empty bank accounts.
Concerns about privacy: Eliminating cash makes it simpler for law enforcement to track and trace each financial transaction, which reduces crime. However, it also eliminates the confidentiality of cash payments. While some businesses take great care to protect customer information, this may not always be the case.
Potential for discrimination: A sizeable portion of the world is still unbanked, lacking access to the digital wallets and accounts that many people take for granted.
One thing is for sure, in a world that is moving faster to being dominated by digital applications, we will have to adjust and adapt to survive if we like it or not.
As John Chambers from Cisco said: “At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years if they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.”
