Is Cash On the Way Out? The Pros and Cons of Cashless

Throughout so much of human history, cash has formed the basis of how we transact. It is a simple, elegant, and efficient system; people agree that money has a set value, and then that a good or service is worth X amount of that money. Providing the right amount of cash will then entitle you to that good or service.

Technology is bringing about change, however. Now, cashless payments are on the rise, where people use cards or wireless technologies (such as Apple Pay) to transfer money directly from one bank account to another as the way of paying for a good or service. There are reports that there will be societies that will be completely cashless by as early as 2024. The big question is… is that actually a good thing?

The benefits of a cashless society

Security: One big benefit of going cashless is that it does enhance security. If your wallet is stolen, for example, you still need the PIN to use a card, while cash can be simply taken out of the wallet. You can also cancel a card or other cashless transfer option, while there’s no way to “cancel” cash.

Health: A disease (such as COVID-19) can actually spread via cash, and one of the reasons that cashless payments has accelerated in recent years is because governments and retailers have recommended that people use contactless payments to limit the spread of the disease.

Innovation: Cash is pretty limited in what it can do. You give the cash to the person you’re buying something from, and they give you the goods in return. Technology and wireless payments offer so much more opportunity. You could have a loyalty card linked directly to the payments platform to give you real-time discounts and offers. The speed of checking out can be improved, too, because payment can happen with a single swipe of a card (and no need 

for change!).

Convenience: With only cash, you would be limited in your ability to transfer funds conveniently, whether that is from your regular account to your savings account, or to a friend or business. To be able to transfer money abroad, for example if you wish to transfer funds to India with Pyypl, you have the convenient option at your fingertips with todays technology. Mobile banking and digital wallets also make it easier for individuals without traditional bank accounts to send and receive money. These benefits combine to make international money transfers quicker, more affordable, secure, and accessible, positively impacting individuals, businesses, and economies globally.

On the other hand, however, there are some serious challenges facing societies that do go fully cashless.

The negatives of a cashless society

Security: While there are some security benefits to cashless, there are some big security concerns, too. Firstly, if someone is able to get access to your account after stealing or finding your wallet, they can drain it of everything, rather than whatever cash you’ve got in your wallet.

There’s a lot of community built around cash: Think of all the times where the only way to make a payment is via cash; the fetes or garage sales, charity boxes and lemonade stands. For many, setting up a cashless payments option would be a time-consuming pain (or just pointless), and the fees that come with using cashless are far grater than exchanging cash. We’ll lose a lot the community-built interactions in a fully cashless society.

Technology can go down: Imagine if you’re doing your weekly shop but, on getting to the checkout, you discover that the payments machines have gone down and are not accepting payments. Suddenly you’ve got a shopping trolley full of groceries, but no way to pay for it. In parts of the world that are at risk of natural disasters, an extreme weather event can take down the power and, with that, the payments platform, too. During the horrific bushfires in Australia a few years ago, entire towns reverted to all-cash for payments because the heat of the fires had taken the town off the power grid. It often took days to restore the power grid. In a cashless society, that would have been devastating.

Wireless isn’t always everywhere: A little related to the point above, imagine going on a roadtrip to somewhere remote and discovering that wireless connectivity isn’t available and suddenly you’re not able to make a payment using your card or app.

Gifts and nice little things become difficult: One of the great joys for grandparents is giving their grandchild a $5 note to buy an ice cream from the passing van. Some cultures have a tradition of gifting small envelopes of cash on special occasions (such as the Chinese on Lunar New Year). A cashless society would make those interactions impractical or impersonal.

No one can decide how you use cash: Back in 2010, when the massively popular game, Minecraft, was just a startup, it relied on PayPal to handle payments. For no reason whatsoever, PayPal locked the account, preventing a small and cash-poor company from accessing what little money it had. That could have very easily been the end of Minecraft if the developer wasn’t able to resolve it quickly. 

Meanwhile, people involved in OnlyFans have run into trouble with Visa and Mastercard, which have decided to take a moral stand on adult services using their products. Cash doesn’t have terms & services limiting how you can use your money and the goods and services you’re allowed to buy.

So, should society go cashless?

While it seems likely that society will go predominantly cashless – the conveniences and benefits are too significant to ignore – it is important that there is a backup, because unlike cash, technology is not perfectly reliable.



Over time, the culture around cash will change as it stops being the standard approach to currency, but people will continue to hold cash, be that in emergency packs for disaster response, as loose change to keep around the house for random expenses, and as a way of buying and selling free of big corporate interest. For that, it will likely have a role into perpetuity.

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