With the advancement of technology, do you remember the last time you took your wallet out to pay with cash? Personally, I do not keep cash on me because my phone is practically my wallet. There are many various types of cashless payments available such as contactless credit cards, mobile payment and radio frequency identification (RFID).
According to a 2017 study by Penguin Intelligence, 92% of China's population is going cashless! They are currently the world's biggest cashless market and many countries do not want to be left behind this ever-changing world and that includes Singapore.
Cashless payments help businesses to keep up with tech savvy consumers. With the advancement of mobile technology, it makes purchases and payments quicker, more efficient and convenient for consumers.
Recently, Singapore has jumped onto the bandwagon by introducing a project to bring cashless payments to Singapore's hawkers under a single unified system. 22 coffee shops, 10 hawker centres and 12 industrial canteens have adopted this e-payment solution through this project. This unified system provided for by NETS unifies payments from 23 different providers at a single payment terminal. This allow customers to use different cashless payment options at a food outlet and also saves the hawkers the hassle of dealing with multiple e-payment firms. Options include GrabPay, DBS PayLah!, Singtel Dash, WeChat Pay and many more.
THE GOOD
One word, convenience. Since we have our phones with us everywhere we go, why not make our phones our wallet as well? Consumers would not need to worry about carrying too much or too little cash on them anymore. Given that all e-payment transactions would provide an e-receipt, there would be no more keeping and locating of paper receipts and struggling to keep track of cash transactions. So say goodbye to asking yourselves, "where did my money go?!".
Businesses want to make their services more accessible and convenient for as many consumers as possible thus cashless payment is an advantage for them as its fast and simple. Customers no longer have to sort out their receipts, fidget with change at the counter and end up holding the queue only to feel embarrassed.
What about from a business perspective? There will be no more disputes on giving the wrong change as customers will now pay for the exact amount, reducing human error. Moreover, the system helps to consolidate the payments and allow hawkers to check their day-to-day transaction records through an app on their phones, saving them time from counting money.
THE BAD
Many would agree that privacy and security is the biggest concern for both the customer and business - especially when there's an increase in the number of fraudulent card transactions being charged to people's cards. Going cashless can raise cybersecurity threats and consumers are worried that their personal information such as credit card number, account transactions and balances will be leaked. In cases where consumers had bad experiences with e-payment, the trouble of calling a bank to deal with the situation could sometimes be frustrating and time consuming as well.
Another concern is the hassle to top up mobile wallets. It is a rather long process from topping up to using it for cashless payments and some people just aren't comfortable with the idea of putting their money into mobile wallets which they do not frequently use.
Cashless payments means limited cashier intervention. Customers are the ones who pay and show that the payment has been made. However, there have been cases where the transaction never happened because customers may have showed a screenshot of a previously made payment - which means a lost in revenue for the hawker on that sale.
Therefore, is going completely cashless really a good idea? With the current efforts by service providers giving promotions and cashbacks, it definitely give consumers an added advantage to use cashless payment whenever they can. However, I personally feel that it's better to meet in between by allowing customers to choose if they'd like to pay by cash or e-payment. That way, we do not push for a cashless payment society nor do we force uncomfortable customers into using cashless payment.