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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday December 27 2015, @11:33AM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday December 27 2015, @10:34PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Sunday December 27 2015, @10:34PM (#281520)

    Carrying wads of cash always makes me nervous.

    So only carry what you need for the day. You must have a very expensive lifestyle if you would need to carry "wads" of cash for your day. By all means use a CC for the bigger purchases however. It's horses for courses - cash is the best for smaller purchases or ones you don't want your wife to know about.

    At least with a CC, you can challenge fraud

    Challenge the fraud as much as you like, and good luck with that. There is no such thing as fraud with cash itself - theft maybe, but not fraud. There are fraudulent transactions of course, such as buying wine and finding water, but whether it was bought with cash or a CC would be irrellevant to the case.

    I've never understood why people want to hoard gold for a crisis.

    Because it is one of the few things recognised as having value by all societies at all times in recorded history. After the nuclear holocaust or bank-crash their bits of gold will still be currency but your CCs and dollar bills will not.

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