Cash

Nestled among the waves of tourists and commuters near Grand Central Terminal is a spot were a “no cash” store is working, free from political pressures. But its success still suggests that paperless payments are a niche play.

While credit cards have been around since the 1950s and debit cards introduced years later, they both have become indispensable to the modern consumer. In fact, in certain retail sectors consumers can only use payment cards or mobile payments to make a purchase.

The world’s biggest digital coin began life promising to become “electronic cash,” but bitcoin and its swarm of imitators are slipping deeper into the shadows of traditional payment services.

From Gen Z to baby boomers, a new study reveals credit union members are more likely pull out their plastic at the point of sale than any other payment method.

The Bank of England issued a challenge for consumers who usually pay with cash to go cashless for a week, as an educational experience prior to its upcoming conference, Future Forum 2018.

Cash is unlikely to go anywhere, while application programming interfaces promise a wealth of new innovation, according to Devon Watson, CMO of Diebold Nixdorf.

They’ve kept tabs on the movement of cash into their till and into their bank accounts but have missed the wealth of data by not monitoring the path and treatment of cash within their organization, according to Rory Herriman, executive vice president and CTO for Software and Digital Systems at SUZOHapp.

Cash is king when it comes to community events, and event organizers know this; which is why they hire qualified, professional mobile ATM companies to manage the ATMs they have on site, writes Yonas Marcos, president and CEO of Star Financial Services.

Even among the experts in the payments industry, people still use cash. Banks can't ignore this, according to Paul Amisano, senior vice president for enterprise digital and payments strategy at BB&T.

If a merchant seeking to avoid credit card fees turned to cash discounting, it was at least partly because the other option — putting a surcharge on credit card use — was complicated and illegal in many states.

Fresh off the heels of having recently raised capital of more than $12 billion in its latest funding round before a potentially lucrative IPO, Ant Financial Group, the operator of Alipay, is rapidly expanding its acceptance network outside of China.

Cash discounting, or informing customers that items in the store are priced less expensively if purchased with cash, does not have the legal barriers of straight surcharging, which is simply charging more for products to cover card fees.

The debit card option will allow Spotify to reach new users in the country including those who don’t have a credit card or want to keep their information private.

Once these security and convenience issues are addressed in the mind of consumers, we will likely see a faster mainstream adoption of digital payments, according to Matt Tatham, manager of content insights and data analyst at Experian Consumer Services.

Starbucks achieved rapid adoption of its mobile card app by building it on top of the highly successful Starbucks closed-loop gift card. Such a model could also apply to the cannabis market, which is largely shunned by mainstream banks and card networks.

Rural Alaskans, including Native Americans living in the mountains, may not have access to traditional banks. But they aren't exactly living off the grid.

A few early adopters — mostly restaurants — have gone cashless, but many merchants have concluded that cash must remain on their menu of payment options.

The sharing economy, declining cash usage, mobile banking and more will all have a major impact on how credit unions do business less than a decade from now, according to one analyst.

NovoPayment, a payment provider focused on Latin America, is working with Visa to help local banks work with Latin American businesses to migrate from their high levels of cash usage to digital payments.

Paysafe Group has introduced a cash-based online payment mechanism for people who don’t have bank accounts or don’t use cards online due to security concerns. The U.K.-based payments services provider is also expanding its presence in the U.S.