Just about every day now the online media is doing the government's job for it by telling us how a cashless society is "inevitable". News.com is the main offender; but there is no doubt that it is the mainstream , not the politicians, who are brainwashing the great unwashed and putting all sorts of ideas into their heads. People used to smirk about Russia's Pravda being the mouthpiece of the Communist government, but it is all of our mainstream media doing the government's bidding here nowadays.

People might be OK with a "cashless society", but 95% of them want card surcharges banned.

So do banks.

The head of NAB has declared against "outrageous surcharges forced on Australian consumers". He said, "It's possible that surcharges were warranted twenty years ago, but they no longer make any sense.

If it's not the banks pushing the greed, what cabal of bastards is it?

Surcharges are outlawed in Europe, Canada, the US and the UK.

It is the banks, and probably their central banks pushing it onto them.
It gives them too much power in my opinion.
They know all your customers and suppliers, as well as your competitors customers and suppliers.
- With all the knowledge of your business as well as your competitors business, they then know more about your business than you do.

And why do I want to try and sift through a bank statement that shows everytime I bought a coffee?
I want my bank statement easy to go through, only larger payments or purchases matter, not coffees or mcdonalds

AC,

If it's the banks, how do you account for the National Australia Bank's boss's statement?

What has your bank statement got to do with surcharges on cards?

Slightly off the topic, I withdraw cash from a non-bank ATM fortnightly. The banks don't want to provide ATMS, so others have to do it, and they have to charge.

Fair enough. But this fortnight the charge went from $3 to $3.98.

Dear Ttbn,

«People might be OK with a "cashless society", but 95% of them want card surcharges banned.»

I am just the opposite - I only use cash and there are more and more things I cannot do as a result.

Surcharges are good - they prolong the use of cash!

Yuyutsu

I use both, but mainly cash. I'm not going to die in a ditch for cash, although I don't think it should disappear. The main thing that I'm against is the surcharges. If people want us to use electronic payments only, they have a cheek to expect us pay extra to do so. If charges can be be illegal in other countries, they can be outlawed here too. Australians are weak, allowing little tyrannies to sneak in until we end up completely under the thumb of the Total State.

Dear Ttbn,

A prohibition of cash will certainly bring us much faster completely under the thumb of the Total State (and large corporations as well) than the loss of a few dollars on surcharges.

Moreover, should people not be allowed to transact directly between them then the Total State will no longer be run by human politicians, corrupt as they may be, but by machines:
I rather die in a ditch, fighting to the last bullet, than allow the world to be ruled by computers.