As something like 90% of everyday purchases are being made with "card" today, it would indicate the days of cash are disappearing fast. The government should regulate against surcharges if they are shown to be unwarranted. A bigger danger is the availability of consumer credit in the form of "After Pay" or "Interest Free" these hurt consumers far more than surcharges. Other deceptive practices such as so call discounts should be clamped down on as well. Loyalty cards are another, as are things like fly buys a cost to consumers.

My wife received a text message from a large clothing retailer on Friday, basically offering garments for $5. She went into the store yesterday, lots of in store advertising offering imaginary discounts of up to 50% off. Asked about the $5 stuff, woman said "Oh that's only at some stores" (not stated in the text) after some "discussion" the woman found the $5 rags. It was a con to get people into the store.

Cashless is literally buying revolt ! Those who haven't experienced when "the lines are down" should try & think of the frustrations when you can't do your shopping !

Yuyutsu

The “loss of a few dollars” to individuals is a massive gain (in the billions) to the already rich and powerful who are pulling your strings. You will not die in a ditch: you will continue dying slowly as the screws are slowly turned.

In the West, the water in the pot has been growing hotter for the last 50 years, but only a few of the frogs have noticed that it is now close to boiling.

Indyvidual,

Yes. Good point. Those lines have been down several times lately, and the frogs take little notice. It only lasts a short time they think, if they think at all. They are already being trained to think power outages due to renewable energy are to be expected and part of “saving the environment”.

According to Anna Bligh, ex Queensland Premier, now CEO of the Australian Banking Association, many small businesses “may” be unaware that they CANNOT apply a surcharge if they don't take cash.

I wonder if Gloria Jeans, going cashless this month, knows that. I believe that coffee drinkers are being relieved of an extra 8 cents per cup if they pay electronically.

As Australians are “the people least likely in the world to pay with cash”, they are also the least likely to be budget conscious or care one way or the other: despite their rants about CPI.

Even so, I wouldn't have thought it was not a good idea to test customers’ loyalty during what most people see as very tough economic times.

Dear Ttbn,

«You will not die in a ditch: you will continue dying slowly as the screws are slowly turned.»

Nice metaphor, but how does it apply?

If no cache is allowed, then I will die within some weeks, the time it takes once I cannot buy food and starve to death.

The unfortunate trend towards a cashless society is just the result of technological advancements and consumer preferences.

We can resist it by continuing to use cash, choosing not to purchase from places that only accept cash, and raising awareness.

There are a multitude of reasons as to why a cashless society is a bad thing. They’re all evidence-based, too, so there is no reason to assume that a “cabal” is behind the trend.

(Notice no one here has had to resort to cherry-picking data like they do with the other conspiracy theories proposed on this forum?)