A consumer group is urgently calling on the federal government to follow other jurisdictions in the U.S and Europe and bring in legislation to stem the slide toward a cashless society.
Only 10 per cent of transactions in Canada today are done using cash, according to Carlos Castiblanco, an economist with the group Option Consommateurs.
“There is a need to protect cash right now before more merchants start refusing [it],” Castiblanco recently told CBC Radio’s Ontario Today.
It’s critical to act now, he added, before retailers begin removing all the infrastructure required to store and maintain physical money.
I carry cash and I give it to people in need, I don’t mind cashless payment being the default but at least some of the following things need to happen before we can fully move to that:
Canada Post needs to open a savings account/credit card so that it is not profit motivated and accessible to disadvantaged people. Most poor people can’t afford the annual fee for cards with decent benefits, and to get it waived you need to have significant deposits with your bank/credit union.
We need a public option compared to Visa/MC/Amex, even if it’s only usable domestically. Letting a handful of non-Canadian companies make a percentage of all Canadians’ transactions is ridiculous and if there was no cash then they would look to jack up rates to whatever they wanted.
We need regulations in how credit card companies can charge merchants and customers.
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I carry cash and I give it to people in need, I don’t mind cashless payment being the default but at least some of the following things need to happen before we can fully move to that:
Very well put.