what kind of money you'll be putting into vending machines 25 years from now
I already rely on cash only as much as absolutely necessary. With a debit card, I can pay for any credit card transaction directly out of my checking account, and more and more places are accepting credit cards every day. Hell, in bigger cities, you can even use a credit card in places like a Jack in the Box drive thru. In 25 years it'll be even more pervasive.
Some places now are even supporting debit cards directly and require me to enter my PIN... all the better, that extra layer of security is a little comforting. If my card is ever stolen though, I'm limited in liability to $50, thanks to credit card laws that apply even though it technically isn't a credit card, and I keep a little nest egg tucked away in an unrelated account to tide me over while the bank tracks down and fixes any unauthorized use of my main account.
Sure, it's not exactly a model of privacy since every purchase I make is logged on my account, but I consider the security of my money more important as a real issue than the nebulous fear that someone, somewhere is going to exploit the fact that I like buying cheeseburgers for lunch.
Here in western Canada, we've been able to use our debit cards at Burger King's and McDicks for almost 10 years. These days, pizza delivery dudes bring their hand-held debit machines to your door... and every mom-n-pop shop has one. Stores advertise if they/dont/ take debit, and it is a rare site indeed.
Here in Finland we have been using debet and credit cards for the last 20 years. Short summary: it is much better than cash. However, I believe that the system would be even better if it would be a governmental replacement of money instead of just a small part of the private bank system, leading to marginal increase of costs because every bank has their own card system with same technology, but different costs for the end user.
Many of the debit cards have something called a virtual wallet intended for mini payments, but loading money just costs too much, 0.5 euros, 3 % or something, totally crippling this mechanism.
To be widely successful, a new system should have no additional costs when compared to cash. If it involves additional costs, people are not going to change. Many people are willing to change money (=a lot of positive associations) only for something that is better in every aspect.
"Be there. Aloha."
-- Steve McGarret, _Hawaii Five-Oh_
The future of money is already here... (Score:5, Interesting)
I already rely on cash only as much as absolutely necessary. With a debit card, I can pay for any credit card transaction directly out of my checking account, and more and more places are accepting credit cards every day. Hell, in bigger cities, you can even use a credit card in places like a Jack in the Box drive thru. In 25 years it'll be even more pervasive.
Some places now are even supporting debit cards directly and require me to enter my PIN... all the better, that extra layer of security is a little comforting. If my card is ever stolen though, I'm limited in liability to $50, thanks to credit card laws that apply even though it technically isn't a credit card, and I keep a little nest egg tucked away in an unrelated account to tide me over while the bank tracks down and fixes any unauthorized use of my main account.
Sure, it's not exactly a model of privacy since every purchase I make is logged on my account, but I consider the security of my money more important as a real issue than the nebulous fear that someone, somewhere is going to exploit the fact that I like buying cheeseburgers for lunch.
Re:The future of money is already here... (Score:1)
Re:The future of money is already in Finland (Score:1)
Many of the debit cards have something called a virtual wallet intended for mini payments, but loading money just costs too much, 0.5 euros, 3 % or something, totally crippling this mechanism.
To be widely successful, a new system should have no additional costs when compared to cash. If it involves additional costs, people are not going to change. Many people are willing to change money (=a lot of positive associations) only for something that is better in every aspect.