The cashless society
The move comes shortly after controversial comments amde by the payment giant's chief executive Al Kelly, who is planning to profit by waging a war on cash.
Last month he told an audience of the firm's investors: "We are focused on putting cash out of business and getting more and more consumers into the payments market through more ad more transactions on Visa cards.
"The number one growth lever is the conversion of cheque and cash to digital and electronic payments. Amazingly, despite the progress we've made in card-based payments, the level of cash and cheque is greater today than it was five years ago."
Concern for the elderly
Caroline Abrahams, director at Age UK, said: “We would be really worried by any development that might make it harder for people to pay in cash.
"Cash is still very important to many older people, particularly for smaller transactions such as buying groceries, a newspaper or a cup of coffee."
A spokesperson at the Treasury said: "The UK leads the way in financial technology such as contactless and digital payments. It’s important that consumers have choice in how to pay for goods and services, and paying cash remains a legitimate and useful way to pay."
A spokesman at the British Retail Consortium, which represents UK retailers, said: “It is ultimately the customer that decides how they wish to pay and our research shows that customers continue to use cash for more than 40 per cent of transactions in the UK.
"At the same time, cash accounts for only 11 per cent of retailers’ costs associated with accepting payments, compared to 73 per cent for card payments, therefore card companies can better serve retailers and their customers by providing a more cost-efficient service.”
Who knows where all this will end? Will Bitcoin and cryptos ever rise to become a competitor to Visa? Time will tell.
Facinating @mindhunter thanks for another great informative post! One thing that worries me about a cashless society is homeless people being left out in the cold... but perhaps we can somehow start a movement to give the homeless and less fortunate crypto wallets!?
Hobocoin??
Ha. that works... let's get it going
It could be a sign of trouble for Visa. People are just not using credit card anymore to buy stuff. Or it could be that too many people have used their credit cards to buy stuff and can't pay back and now they need people with money to join the system to help with liquidity.
nah. everyone uses credit cards as we get a free month of credit in exchange for transaction fees that the merchants pay.
Good to know you have financial sense.
If I'm truly honest I'd rather go cryptos after cash and skip Visa and Paypal altogether! GO BITCOIN!! :)
How is cash and cheque used more today than 5 years ago? Can't believe that!
Hey @mindhunter well I think it's very fair for the customer to chose the type of platform or method they want to use.
AND ON OTHER NEWS !!!!!!
Congratulations on your REP i see you are now on 70 thats awesome.
Forget Visa ... do you accept Steem?? :) Yeah, 70 is cool ... helps with the mood!
do you accept Steem?? :)
YES
kkkkkk
thank you so much for this another great informative post:)
following you
Thanks machhour :)
When cards where broadly accepted as a payment method the market was in the same position as it is now with the bitcoin. It was weird back then and few people joined and slowly become broadly accepted. It's a process and bitcoin will follow more or less the same :)
Bitcoin needs to start eating Visa and Paypal's lunch!
i dont think you understand how bitcoin will actually work.
lets say you go to a cashcounter and want to pay via bitcoin. If its takes more than a few secs to confirm the transaction, it is not great for you or merchant. bitcoin fees have gone up the roof and transactions take a long time to confirm so visa will never be troubled by bitcoin.
next big reason is we use credit card to get a months credit for free ( if u pay on time). using bitcoin is like paying with a debit card as you need btc in. wallet to spend. we prefer to have merchant pay transaction fees to visa in return for free credit. unless fees are super low there is no incentive to accept btc
After the next hard fork I can see Bitpay cards really taking off as the transaction times start to lower considerably for Bitcoin.
rapacious!
@mindhunter rapaciousness of the highest order!! Go Bitcoin!! Go Steem!!