Cashless future

The use of plastic to pay for even the smallest of daily purchases such as a bus trip has been on the rise for years.

The introduction of near-field communications (NFC) also means we will increasingly never see the money we own in a tangible form and begin to regard this situation as the norm.

NFC, a short-range wireless technology that enables two-way transactions between tags and readers held close to each other, is already in use with travel cards and some bank cards.

But the dominance of smartphones, which can accommodate NFC chips, has raised the probability that consumers are on the cusp of moving to a “wave and pay” model, cutting out the need for cash.

Some argue that cash is, if not dead, at least dying, and traditional forms of money are already under assault elsewhere. Bitcoin, largely a digital currency, is not issued or guaranteed by a central bank or government.

The benefit of NFC technology for consumers is simplicity. The advantage for retailers and companies is that making it easier for customers to part with their cash makes it more likely they will do so. Others argue that a cashless world will curb corruption and the underground economy.

But are these enough to banish coinage from the realm of daily life entirely and leave it to the numismatists? The evidence suggests not. The introduction of the modern credit card in 1958 and the wider use of plastic did not kill cash, with customers preferring to have a variety of methods to pay with.

They are also sentimental. As with books and paper, currency can be a thing of beauty as well as carrying the weight of legal guarantee. Others argue that handling cash makes for more prudent spending, while living on plastic encourages a slide into using credit.

Nor will the absence of cash necessarily curb crime: apart from criminals moving further online, phones and pre-paid cards can still be stolen.

Cash may no longer be king, but it is unlikely to disappear entirely from the NFC-enabled, electronic world.

Jennifer Thompson