Cash Transactions
Whether cash is becoming a thing of the past is a question that can be posed in light of modern trends towards the use of credit cards, and payment for goods and services via the Internet. However, the amount of notes and coins still produced by mints around the world seems to indicate that there remains a healthy demand for these traditional means of payment. In short cash is still used for day-to-day transactions and small purchases. Cash can easily be obtained from a large network of ATMs and electronic money dispensers that connect directly to the client’s bank account.
A look back into ancient history proves that cash has been with us for thousands of years. For most of this period cash has been produced of precious metals, particularly gold and silver, and the materials the coins were made from also served to guarantee its value. Over the past few hundred years bank notes have come to replace cash for larger purchases. Certainly it is much easier for people to carry around a wad of notes than having to transport heavy bags of coins. However, now that national banks have discovered that coins have a much longer life than notes there is a trend, for example in England, to issue coins for larger denominations. However, since the 1920’s the producing of coins in precious metals has virtually come to an end since it is no longer considered economically viable.
Despite the inroads made by checks and credit cards, and the growth of remote shopping, strong preferences for using cash remain in many situations. For buying a loaf of bread and a bottle of milk from the local grocer, the small size of the purchase does not justify using a credit card or a check. If you want to buy a bar of chocolate or drink from dispensing machine, cash is also required. In addition, if a shopkeeper is wary about accepting a check from a person unknown to them, of if they have some suspicions about the credit card that is presented, offering cash remains a popular alternative form of payment. There are also numerous other occasions when presenting cash is the favored option, for example, when including a cash gift in a birthday card, or when buying a ticket to use public transport. So the answer to the question Is cash a thing of the past, has to be “not yet!”
For more infomation on payment methods choose from the list below. |
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Banking - Business Finances - Economics - Insurance - Investing
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