In December 2018 I moved to using my phone for paying for things. One of my personal drivers for this was our recent visit to Nordic countries, where cash was frowned upon and everyone wanted a card.
Back in Australia, I started watching what other people were doing. Lots of people were paying for quite small things with a card or phone. One experience in my local coffee shop stood out: having the barista absently-mindedly offer me the payWave machine and then do a double-take at my proffered $5 note.
Do businesses prefer cards, I wondered. My assumption had been that businesses would prefer cash, because they were not paying the credit card merchant fee. But there is a cost in handling cash as well: trips to the bank, having to manage a cash float, longer time taken for physical transactions and giving change.
Then there was the option of paying with my phone (which is always with me) replacing my wallet altogether. One less thing to carry. So in December, I plunged in. I had to change my credit card bank (because at the time only ANZ offered Apple Pay, and I have an iPhone). I was now a fully-fledged digital warrior, able to navigate my way digitally through all that life could throw at me. Well at least all things that could be solved by money.
What I have learned
The only time I have needed cash was at the sausage line at a church camp. My wife had the cash. Even the coffee at the camp had a payWave machine. This year, I have not needed cash at all. Not once. My wife takes care of such matters as donations. Like the Queen, I no longer carry cash.
I carried a $20 note around for months as an emergency backup. Never needed, and I don’t carry it any more. I have bought lunches, coffees, chewing gum, furniture (PIN still needed), groceries and more. Not once have I needed actual cash.
There is only one place in the City that puts a surcharge (30 cents) on a credit transaction. I don’t go there anymore. Maybe it’s unfair, but there it is.
It’s almost too easy to wave your phone and make a payment. Studies show that people are more circumspect about spending actual cash than using credit cards. Phones just make that disconnect even more pronounced. So you need to put your spending brakes on earlier in the thinking process. I can do that now, after my initial excitement of just wanting to wave my phone about.
It’s almost too easy to wave your phone and make a payment.
The phone payments are more secure than using a card. That was unexpected. In a phone-wave transaction a device number, not the credit card number, is exchanged between your phone and the vendor. Your actual credit card number is never made visible to the vendor. This must be especially handy overseas.
I don’t carry a wallet anymore. The very last reason to have a wallet is to know where to keep my drivers licence. All of my other cards (store loyalty cards, Medicare etc) are in an app I use called StoCard, and I can use – wait for it – my phone for these too. So, I could keep my drivers licence in the car, I suppose, but it is handy for identity purposes on other occasions. In Victoria, if over the age of 26 and a fully licensed driver, there is NO requirement to carry your licence when driving. However, if pulled over you must be able to prove your identity. So a bit of a catch-22 unless you carry other identity documents with you.
Can I use my phone to prove my identity? The issue of identity in Australia has a long and fraught history, going all the way back to the ill-fated Australia Card of 1987. But the Commonwealth (and Victoria) are working (separately and together) on establishing a strong digital identity. Once done, can that be on a phone? I am exploring this now. Then I won’t need my drivers licence on me at all, and the last reason to even own a wallet is gone.
So is anyone missing out in my brave new digital payments world? Yes. It’s beggars and sellers of the Big Issue. I just don’t have cash on me anymore. I wonder if they too will move into getting payWave machines?
Will we see the end of cash? What about people who don’t want credit? Will this eventually kill off the black economy? Will there be a backlash? Interesting times.
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