Author: Daft Old Duffer
Daft Old Duffer: Thumbs Up For The Future?
Sunday, 4th October, 2009 at 12:03 pm, Isle of Wight
Daft Old Duffer returns with more chat about thumbprints and their part in the future of financial transactions. Ed
The unease many feel over the idea of children using their thumbprint in place of money, prompts me to offer my take on what I think will be the way we will pay for things in the future.
I am not any sort of expert in this field – these are just my thoughts based on what I’ve heard and read and deduced. No doubt you will tell me if I’m writing rubbish.
We’re fast approaching the time when telling children how we used to carry around small packs of varie – coloured paper to represent different amounts of cash will provoke hoots of disbelieving laughter. And cheques too are vanishing.
Many business’s – including shop chains – are already refusing to accept them (and cheque guarantee cards soon to be abolished – Ed).
So the time is close upon us when the only means for paying across larger amounts will be by credit or debit card or via the Internet.
Leaving only the cash needed for small transactions such as buying that paper or chocolate bar.
Yet for this too, there already exists a ‘cash card’. Restricted to the paying out of a pound or two at a time they are, hopefully, untempting to thieves.
The only reason they are not already in use is the reluctance of shopkeepers to pay for the necessary ’swipe’ machine.
But the time will surely come when our kids will, just as with coloured paper money, find it hard to believe that once everyone carried around in their pocket or purse random bits of metal.
And cash machines will disappear from our high streets as suddenly as they appeared.
So – for a while we will manage with two cards, one for major transactions and the other for minor.
It won’t stop there however. Eventually it will be a case of thumbprint or DNA breath or under the skin microchip.
Or some method we haven’t heard of yet but which is already being tested.
Images:
Thumbprint by Shauna Alexander under CC BY-SA 2.0
Holdup graffiti by Jeremy Burgin under CC BY-SA 2.0
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Actually, a surprisingly large minority of people are unable to have bank accounts or credit cards because of poor credit histories and still deal with the world entirely in cash. Most banks offer a ‘basic’ account to people in that predicament, but it almost certainly won’t include a credit or debit card. Then there are those somewhat richer people who like to deal in cash rather than declare it to the taxman. Ask any petrol station cashier how many people pay in cash – you’d be surprised. I think it will be a while yet before cash disappears.
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Hi Rob, I have to disagree with you, as most basic bank accounts do give a debit card/solo that only works if the person has the funds in their account for the transaction to go through. The reason alot of people don’t have accounts is because of the mess they got in when they were younger, and so got blacklisted. (And if it wasn’t for the banks inventing funds they didn’t have as loans this wouldn’t be happening, but part of the plan). It began years ago and was available to 15/16 year olds(debit/solo), which then lead them onto credit cards. Am not sure what you mean by a while, but just look at how fast technology has progressed in the last 20 years!
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Financial inclusion has come a long way in the last few years, but many people either can’t get bank accounts, not even a basic one, because they live such chaotic lives, or are not prepared to jump through hoops to get one,
Don’t forget also that over 2 billion people world wide are unbanked – in a global economy they would need to be included before money could disappear.
I think when money does disappear and we tell our kids about it they will think, ‘What a good idea that was, why did we get rid of it?’
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I had no bank account or credit cards from the ages of 25 to 40 and only recently became a ‘co-signer’ on the wifes account.
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Historically we think of non-cash financial transactions and retail banking as being inextricably linked. Not so. There is no reason why cash transactions and payment processing shouldn’t be done via a central repository run by the Bank of England. There would be no need for user charges and all transactions would be instant. Costs would be paid for by the interest accrued on the cumulative balance on deposit (there would be no negative balance since this is purely a cash repository and no financial services such as loan facilities would be included). It is perfectly feasible to use mobile phones to initiate personal transactions, thus making cards unnecessary and thereby including most people into the system. Only those without a mobile phone would be external to the system and would need cash. The down side is that the state, who knows best after all, would have total knowledge of our affairs. It would be a dire world if all the skeletons fell out of all the closets – especially if it is left to the state to decide which are legitimately dead or not. Also, Banks would need to be persuaded that this is actually in their interest since it removes from them the costs of maintaining cash availability while leaving them with the core business of financial services and investment management.
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Actually, when you really begin to think about it (thanks to DoD’s prodding) and consider Jenns point about getting into debt and Christophers point about privacy, cash really does seem to be a great idea. You might get robbed, but you only lose what’s in your pockets, not the contents of your bank account or your credit card (that moneys not even yours). You can’t get into debt – when it’s spent it’s spent – and no one needs to know who you are when you spend your money. Who knows – maybe we will see a movement back to cash.
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