Cashing In On Cash – What Does The Future Hold For Physical Currency?

There was once a time when you couldn’t move for the jingle of loose change in your purse or pocket. Not any more.

A recent survey suggests that 75% of people believe that pennies and cheques will be nothing but an entry in the history books by 2023.

Contactless payments

According to Visa, cash is becoming irrelevant as more people turn to Chip & PIN machines and contactless payment systems in favour of coins and notes. The card company found that card transactions soared by over 400% to £462 million in 2013.

It also reported that 300,000 contactless terminals were now in use across the UK helping to support the 30.3 million contactless cards.

Plastic & mobile

While it’s easy to claim that Visa is being somewhat pessimistic about the demise of physical currency, the Payments Council also predicts that more people will turn to plastic or mobile devices in the neat future.

It forecasts that by 2022, the number of cash transactions will have fallen by over a third to 13.7 billion. In that same time period, the use of debit cards will soar to 13.8 billion and overtake cash for the first time.

This won’t be the first milestone plastic transactions have hit. In 2009, debit cards overtook cash in terms of the amount spent by £2 billion. The Payments Council now believes that non-cash methods will be used for more than half of all transactions by next year.

Goodbye to the penny?

What’s more, there is rumour that the one pence piece is also on the way. Rumour is all it is at the moment, but with Canada dropping its penny, could the UK follow suit?

So, where will all this leave the coins and notes that we all know and love? Well, it’s unlikely that they will be completely eradicated for many years to come – if ever.

After all, businesses must turn to cash when the power is out or servers are down. For this reason, it’s possible that the UK won’t ever be completely reliant on electronic payments.

However, as physical currency becomes less important, non-cash methods, such as debit and credit cards, mobile payments and contactless payments will continue to grow and become even more commonplace.

Increase in Card Payment comes at a cost

With the influx in card payments there was always going to be a downside. That downside is in the form of having increase online fraud. However don’t worry. We have pulled togthter 3 tips to help keep online fraud down to a minimum:

key ways to tackle online card fraud

Nowadays we are all used to making purchases and payments online. Just a few short years ago it wasn’t that commonplace, but in today’s world using cards to make digital payments means things are faster and more convenient than ever before.

It is no surprise that the process now plays such a major part in both business and personal day-to-day activities. However, as with most good things there can be a downside and in this case that comes in the form of possible online card fraud.

1. Always check web addresses

When you are making a payment online always check that the web address you are using is the genuine – and secure – version. This isn’t difficult to do, but there are many clever malicious sites that are designed to fool people into giving away their card details by mistake.

One good tip is to never click on a link in an email but instead input the web address into your browser yourself. Failing that, using a reputable search engine can be a good way of making sure you are actually connected to the site you want.

2. Password protection

Of course, making sure your password is secure is also essential. A recent survey revealed that many people use predictable and easily guessed terms, including the word ‘password’ itself!

There are quite a few tips and tricks for making a password harder for others to guess but remain easy for you to remember. The bottom line is that you must avoid terms, words or phrases that are simply too common or obvious. Using a combination of letters and numbers is also wise.

3. Be aware

Keeping your wits about you is something we all learn at a young age when it comes to dealing with money. Sadly there will always be unscrupulous people trying to con others into parting with their cash and it is no different online.

Making sure that you keep up-to-date with browser security enhancements as well as making full use of security software is essential. Keeping an eye out for news stories regarding widespread scams is also a good idea.

Essentially, as with any other area of life or business, just using common sense and being aware of potential threats and dangers is the best way to stay safe online and prevent yourself falling foul of fraud.

Simon Rome writes for PayzoneCards who are a UK provider of card payment processing machines, who also covers a mixture of topical industry related news to pretty much anything that generally involves money and payment transactions.