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from the i-bet-the-last-$10-in-my-wallet dept.
The New York Times is reporting that Sweden is getting close to eliminating cash as a method of payment:
Parishioners text tithes to their churches. Homeless street vendors carry mobile credit-card readers. Even the Abba Museum, despite being a shrine to the 1970s pop group that wrote "Money, Money, Money," considers cash so last-century that it does not accept bills and coins.
Few places are tilting toward a cashless future as quickly as Sweden, which has become hooked on the convenience of paying by app and plastic.
This tech-forward country, home to the music streaming service Spotify and the maker of the Candy Crush mobile games, has been lured by the innovations that make digital payments easier. It is also a practical matter, as many of the country's banks no longer accept or dispense cash. [...]
Bills and coins now represent just 2 percent of Sweden's economy, compared with 7.7 percent in the United States and 10 percent in the euro area.
But, as anyone with a brain can predict:
Not everyone is cheering. Sweden's embrace of electronic payments has alarmed consumer organizations and critics who warn of a rising threat to privacy and increased vulnerability to sophisticated Internet crimes. Last year, the number of electronic fraud cases surged to 140,000, more than double the amount a decade ago, according to Sweden's Ministry of Justice.
My take: With cash, identify theft and credit card fraud becomes more difficult. But more importantly, I like the anonymity of cash. It lets those of us who pay too much in taxes cheat on sales tax by buying expensive things in a tax-free state when we visit. I also like using cash to tip underpaid servers at restaurants so they don't have to report that portion of their gratuity. But there is a civil liberties element to it as well. The government has no business knowing or being able to know where I spend my money or how much I spend.
(Score: 4, Informative) by looorg on Sunday December 27 2015, @01:12PM
Reading the article in the NYT I note that this was a very big city centric article (Stockholm, Stockholm != Sweden, it's just the capital), sort of like NYC isn't all of America. If the ABBA museum doesn't accept cash as payment they could be breaking the law. Doubtful that anyone will report them or make an issue of it but still that would or could be an option. It's not really worth a visit anyhow - The museum of Alcohol is pretty much next door and is more interesting, still not as interesting as the Army Museum (easily the best in town). Several county councils, in charge of hospitals among other things, tried to enforce some no-cash policy but they got slapped down. They have to accept cash while a private business, like the ABBA museum, could in theory skate on the issue.
... students said they almost exclusively used cards and electronic payments. “No one uses cash,” said Hannah Ek, 23. “I think our generation can live without it.” The downside, she conceded, was that it was easy to spend without thinking. “I do spend more,” Ms. Ek said. “But if I had a 500 krona bill, I’d think twice about spending it all.” (Five hundred kronor is about $58.)
I found this to be the most interesting paragraph in the article. "I Spend more" and if she had cash she would think twice. Spending physical money "hurts" somehow and it becomes easy and you don't think as much if it's just a digital transaction.
http://www.riksbank.se/en/Press-and-published/Notices/2014/Economic-Commentary-Does-cash-have-a-future-as-legal-tender/ [riksbank.se]
Cash as legal tender in Sweden.
https://www.getswish.se/ [getswish.se]
This is the application that they are talking about. Since it's swedish only and if you don't speak or can read that the site is kind of pointless but in essence it ties your phone and phone number (cell) to your bank-account. All the big banks of the country came together and pushed that out. It is fairly convenient. Sending cash to other people is pretty much just a few clicks, transactions goes thru in a less then a minute. People get a fit tho when it, the service, goes down for a few hours, it has happened a few times. It's a bit of a pain tho since upgrades to phones tend to break the app and you have to re-install and such. I personally don't use it, I didn't really see the point - cash or cc works.
http://www.armemuseum.se/languages/english/ [armemuseum.se]
Army Museum, better then the ABBA museum.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/business/international/in-sweden-a-cash-free-future-nears.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
This is the full article of the NYT.
(Score: 1) by Moru on Sunday December 27 2015, @08:02PM
Yes cash works but the banks hardly handles cash any more. If you have a small sports club doing competitions and other revenue it's almost impossible to get rid of the cash again. Banks don't accept money unless you pay for an expencive business account for cash-deposit.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday December 28 2015, @03:11AM
I know. It sort of boggles the mind that a BANK doesn't want cash or money. They have become more like sales-offices for services I don't want or need. One of the smaller niche banks could probably be more cash friendly. Have you tried FOREX? From what I know they tend to be okay with cash deposits and transactions.