Visions of a cashless society started being portrayed from the 1950’s along with other aspects of a future waiting to be transformed by technology. That future has not yet arrived but it is now possible to exist without using cash on a daily basis. In fact, in a survey released this week, 25% of Australians claim not to use cash in a given month. In the US, 50% of Americans carry less than $20 in cash at any time.
Society’s move away from cash has been accelerating since the late 2000’s when contactless payments were introduced for transactions under $100. The convenience and speed of this type of payment has been a boon for cashless payment and the availability of “tap and pay” on mobile phones was set to drive this transition even faster.