A cashless society may seem like something that belongs in a science fiction movie, yet our world is on its way. There are forces that are behind the cash-free movement to include financial services, governments, and those who criticize the traditional financial system.
Still, we are not yet there, though there are countries such as Sweden that are logistics to be overcome to make payment transactions in a specified area easily. There are also social issues that need to be addressed before cash will become a less popular form of payment.
The advantages of having a cash-free society include:
Crime prevention
When people use cash, robbers and thieves have an easier time to steal the money. Most illegal activities, such as selling drugs, are done using cash payments, so there will be no record of the payment transaction record. If most payment transactions are done online, the occurrence of these kinds of crimes can be reduced.
The occurrence of financial crimes such as tax evasion can also be curtailed as there are transaction records of the income. Money laundering would also be more difficult to conduct as there is a trail of the payment transactions and the source of funds can be easily questioned.
No need for cash management
It does cost a lot of money for a government to print their banknotes and mint their coins. Storing money also has costs, such as needing to place it in a vault. Business owners need to go to a bank to deposit their sales and withdraw when they have to make payments. Carrying large amounts of cash is now a thing of the past.
There was a time when a person had to buy the local currency if they wanted to transact with someone from another country. Now, international payment transactions are much easier done when using cashless transactions. Currency exchange and remittance can quickly be done on a mobile device using an app of a reliable payment provider like Paxum, which you can find at https://paxum.com.
There are several countries that are already making moves to totally eliminate the use of cash, as it is being pushed by both the consumers and its government. One notable example is Sweden where there are many stores that have a sign saying that cash is not accepted. Cash payments make up just two percent of all retail sales in this country.
While trimming down the amount of cash in circulation might help in reducing crimes, many areas in the world are still quite far away from being a cashless society. We have to severe reliance on cash and encouraging online transactions by building the payment infrastructure. Millions of people will desire to have physical currency as it is something that they can hold, but that might change through time.
As technology evolves, we move closer to having more cashless societies. Though for some, the very thought of no longer having physical currency might be an outrage, those who are the movers and shakers of creating of a cash-free society are establishing the payment networks. Cash does enable the dark elements of our community to remain more difficult to catch and to reduce these crimes and catch more criminals. It is better to have recorded financial transactions.