The banks want the cashless economy, here are just three reasons this would be not in most peoples best interests.

1st If you are traveling overseas and only have a card, the surcharges add considerably in costs you pay and the conversion will be done at a rate that does not advantage you but the bank.

2nd Stranded customers furious at Westpac payment system fail and ANZ app problems

Furious customers stranded in shops are lashing out at Westpac and ANZ on social media saying they are unable to pay for their goods.

Angry customers and business owners are taking aim at Westpac and ANZ, saying their payment system has dropped out on one of the year’s busiest shopping days.

Customers were stranded inside shops with no means to pay for their Boxing Day sale finds or being forced to pay with cash.

Outage-checking website Down Detector shows there has been a sudden surge in customers reporting problems accessing the payment system from about midday today.

The same website shows the ANZ App has crashed on one of the busiest days of the year for banking transactions — with customers unable to access their funds.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/stranded-customers-furious-at-westpac-payment-system-fail/news-story/fa0adc4505a80c2648f8bbef682b6d02

3rd Gift cards declined on Boxing Day at Myer and Coles.

Shoppers at Myer and Coles have had their gift cards declined on Boxing Day, with a third party provider blamed for the outage.

Technical problems also plagued the Coles Group and Myer gift cards on Christmas Eve, and shoppers were left frustrated again on Wednesday as post-Christmas sales swung into action.

Boxing Day is one of the biggest days of the year for Myer, and shoppers took to Facebook to vent their frustration at not being able to take advantage of the sales with their gift cards.

"Your gift cards not working in stores on Boxing Day," one shopper wrote on Facebook. "Helpline constantly engaged, and poor retail assistants tearing their hair out."

Shoppers were complaining of gift card rejection from the start of shopping on Boxing Day morning.

The problem was fixed about 5.30pm, according to responses from Myer to customers.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/gift-cards-declined-on-boxing-day-at-myer-and-coles-20181226-p50obp.html

Let's hope that cashless is just another crackpot scheme that will fizzle out. Technology is not reliable enough, as your examples show. There would be more chance of Big Brother prying. There would be more chance of fraud. People wouldn't keep track of how much they spend - I'll bet that many people never reconcile the bank statements with their card receipts now, let alone on in a cashless future.

Sounds like another big government globalisation strategy.

>Sounds like another big government globalisation strategy.
No, nothing to do with globalization.
And it's far worse than big government - it's big INTRUSIVE government.

Must have missed some thing, I thought we had just about got there
As we blindly walk in to the next Global Financial Crisis, maybe this year we need a little cash for our daily needs

The banks might be in favour of this move to a cashless society because of the added fees. But they are not the motivators of the movement.

It's government.

Governments love the idea. Two reasons:

1. The black economy can't really exist in a cashless society so this will enhance revenues and all governments are in favour of increased revenues.

2. But more importantly, a cashless society gives the authorities a vastly greater ability to micro-manage individuals and enforce otherwise unenforceable proscriptions. For example, if you are forced to buy all your foodstuff via card, every single item you purchase will be recorded. Whatismore, their ability to enforce change will be vastly increased. Spend more than the average on grog? They'll know and eventually they'll react. Its a totalitarian wet-dream.

There was a time when crossing the Sydney Harbour incurred a fee that was paid in cash. For the sake of simplicity, the fee was the same no matter when you crossed. Then the technology allowed the government to collect the fee electronically and many people, for convenience, signed up. After a few years the government decided that electronic collection would be mandatory. For convenience alone, mind you...Nothing would change.

BUT, soon after that change was effected differential fees were introduced. Cross during peak times and incur a higher fee. A lower fee would encourage you to cross when the government thought it better.

Additionally, it allowed the government to incrementally increase the fee. When the fee was $2 it wasn't convenient to increase it to say $2.05. They had to increase it to $2.20 and suffer the electoral pain of having a 10% rise. Now however the fee can be increased in 1c increments and the motorist barely notices.

Imagine that on a larger scale. This softdrink has more sugar so a fee is added at the checkout - for your own good mind you. The GST is 10% today but 10.05% tomorrow. You've already had too much grog this month - your card doesn't work when you try to buy more.

But of coarse that'll never happen....