A few months ago, a retailer switched banks because their usual bank closed the local branch. Now, the new bank has announced the planned closure of the local branch early in 2021, leaving the town without a bank branch.
With the nearest deposit branch a 20 minute drive away, the business is actively contemplating going cashless.
At the peak of Covid, they traded cashless for six weeks and it did not impact the business. Some customers who switched to cashless and remained cashless.
Looking at recent bank branch closures, I do wonder if banks are guiding all of us to go cashless. The wonder makes sense since the costs of dealing with cash have gone up.
Of course, retailers don’t like credit card and EFTPOS fees. However, when balanced against the labour cost and rick cost of cash, cashless is barely more expensive.
I was in a shop in suburban Hawthorn last weekend and went to pay with cash, we only take cards, sorry, was the response. I asked abut it and it turns out they started accepting cash after the Covid lockdown but after two weeks stopped because so few used it that it was not worth the time it took to manage for. Indeed, they have gone as far as to remove the cash drawers from their registers.
But, back to the banks. It feels like they want us to move away from cash. I know from talking with newsagents directly impacted by local bank branch closures that they feel the same way.
What do you think?
There seems a couple of issues here irresepective of the Banks undeclared alternate intentions,if any.
Closing Branches is economical for Banks. I don’t believe there is a hidden agenda here however it could well be the end resulting in a move to cashless.
If the area of contention has an A.Post branch or L.P.O. then they represent the majority of Banks. Thanks to M/s Holgate.
If there is no representation of Bank facilities , this could present a great opportunity for the newsagency in Town to apply to be a L.P.O. or a Post Point if they are not one already.
Cashless society is progressing by its very usage of card increased purchases. Youth today in the main just don’t carry cash. For example they buy a cup of coffee for $4 two three or four time a day.
A lot of them believe preceding Generations have got it A about B.
If this is the case then cashless will take a little longer than the forcing from larger institutions (if this is their hidden agenda) than we may see otherwise.
In short, yes. Cash is expensive for them. It is expensive for us. When a deposit trip goes from 7 minutes to 35 minutes one-way it is a cost we have to consider.
Going cashless is all very well until someone wants to claim their lottery prize. We have no means to pay any prizes other than with cash, so unless the Visa / Mastercard schemes will allow us to do refunds to cards for prize payments we are stuck with needing to take cash.
Currently refunding to cards is against the Visa / MC terms of use unless it is for the refund of a sale previously done on card.
Spot on Glenn. Let’s not forget most of us have agency sales exceeding 60 per cent of our total sales. We are charged merchant fees on all of these sales made on card with no additional commission to compensate.
Adding to this a lot of our traditional customer demographic are not ready for us to go cashless. In my part of the world the January bushfires also highlighted the importance of cash in the case of natural disasters and power failure. Many tourists were caught out.
I prefer to argue for the need for banking services in all regional towns. If the existing banks don’t want to play in this space I believe it is time for our federal government to step in with a 5th pillar. As for merchant fees on card useage tis time for a change in regulations so that the eftpos fees are charged directly to the customer rather than the merchant.
Glen if all goes cashless the customer will be forced to have a credit to their bank account.
If so they may as well shop on line.
Not a good look..
My prediction be years if ever this happens.
Banks are not the agents of change, it’s the tech companies. The only people using bank branches are small business for a decreasing portion of their takings and some of the elderly. The rest, like myself, never go to a branch and do all their payments via card or Apple Pay. Cash is on the way out and banks as we know them won’t last either. Wouldn’t be surprised to see digital currencies take over, China are heading down that path and the US will match them.