Move to plastic only no small change
THE nation’s move to cashless transactions means businesses around the country are ditching notes and coins and shifting to “card only” transactions.
While the number of consumers using tap and go payments continues to soar, businesses are shying away from cash and relying solely on electronic payments.
The owner and operator of Sydney Asian hawker centre Spice Alley, Marcus Chang, said the store opened nearly 18 months ago and was completely cashless from the beginning.
“We didn’t want cash down here, we wanted to be completely progressive, Apple Pay was starting to come about and the writing on the wall was that cash was going out,’’ he said. “We moved to a card-only system where people could control their own tap and go and everything is at a low price point.”
Latest figures from global research firm RFi found 58 per cent of all consumers have made a contactless purchase using a debit or credit card.
ME’s head of deposits and transactional banking, Nic Emery, said new research commissioned by the lender found consumers continued to head towards paying by card instead of cash.
“About 61 per cent of Australians are reporting their preference to go cashless,’’ he said. “That impacts the way they pay, obviously for services like paying tradies cash in hand, tipping waiters, donating to charities and buskers on the street.”
More lenders are also rolling out smartphone pay using an Android or iPhone device.
Just last week ING Direct and Macquarie Bank rolled out Apple Pay for their banking customers, another shift away from customers paying by cash.
Mr Chang said he still had customers who wanted to use cash, so they had the option to go their kiosk and buy preloaded cards and use them in the store.
He said staff did not expect to receive tips, so card payments had not affected the ability of customers to leave spare change.