The end of credit cards is coming

The end of credit cards is coming

money.cnn.com

Credit cards may soon be as outdated as vinyl records. (Remember those?) And this is the year that the slow, steady march to oblivion begins.

You can already use your iPhone, Droid or BlackBerry to buy a hotdog at the ballgame, buy your Starbucks latté, or give a friend a few bucks by Bumping phones. But by the end of the year you may not even think twice about reaching for your phone to pay at the register instead of fumbling for your credit card.

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This is just another step in the technology revolution. It seems as though everything is going digital in one form or another. Music. Photo's. Online paperless statements. Online bill paying. Now the demise of the credit card. It certainly is convenient. I don't have or use credit cards. I only use a debit card. This is virtually the same thing - pun intended. But as I've said before. What happens when the power goes out?

Now here's a question. With all of the Big Brother talk about how everything is, or soon will be monitored when do you think we will see an end to cash? Do you realize how much money the government could save by not printing cash? I don't know figures, but I know the paper itself is very costly, and the printing process is expensive. Multiply that by the amount of actual paper currency and it has to be a VERY large sum. Think about the cost of coins. The metals, and the minting process. Another extremely large sum I would suppose. Plus as an added bonus, there wouldn't be a single penny that is not accounted for.

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by withopeneyes

This is just another step in the technology revolution. It seems as though everything is going digital in one form or another. Music. Photo's. Online paperless statements. Online bill paying. Now the demise of the credit card. It certainly is convenient. I don't have or use credit cards. I only use a debit card. This is virtually the same thing - pun intended. But as I've said before. What happens when the power goes out?

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

edit on 24/1/2011 by withopeneyes because: (no reason given)

To be fair, when the power goes out, you won't be able to use a credit card, they rely on readers and computers to be able to be used. At the end of the day, there will still be cold hard cash and that has always been and will always be my preferred method of payment.

Saw this many years ago** but I have never really liked the idea to be honest

My partner has one of those contactless cards you wave at the machine to pay.. It really does not feel like you are paying for anything and almost like stealing (since your not going through the actual purchasing process)

IMHO this is a way to make it easier for you to spend money, and I dislike it immensely.

** back in the very early days of bluetooth when Ericsson was getting it off the ground.

I still prefer unregistered (or least registered) cash but eey that's me.

Personally, I think this is a terrible idea. Number 1, phones are more prone to breaking than credit cards, and also credit cards don't run out of battery.

Secondly, couldn't this potentially open up a huge security risk? I mean with a card, at least most of the time you need a pin number to make a purchase in store. And a lot of places online will now only deliver to the address registered on the card for security reasons. Also, with the wonders of technology, it wont take someone long to bluetooth into your phone and hack it somehow surely?

Thirdly, not everyone actually has a phone or can use one (oldies aye!). Personally I only use mine as exactly what it was intended to be, a phone. And i don't always take it out with me either, where as my wallet, I do.

Just seems a bit dumb to me

I agree with the previous posters here. While I have a debit card, I almost exclusively use cash. Call me old fashioned. I like using cash. Credit cards are not allowed in my household.

I wouldn't touch a credit card and have no use for phones. Apart from when I take out a cheap PAYG phone for emergencies. What is it with people who can't bear not to be 'connected' 24/7?
Some things are easily dispensed with and the sooner the above totally disappear from society, the better.

There are many places, like parts of Brooklyn where you still can't use plastic to buy anything... Cash is king

There's probably still a long way to go before the credit card gets fully replaced, the bankers still make alot of money from us using them!
I think the new technology is just an alternative to the credit card and yet another convinient way for us to spend money we don't have, bringing us in debt, making the rich richer from the interrest rate we have to pay them.
They will always find new ways to make is simple for us to pay for things we really don't need or really can't afford.
I still use cash as much as I can, and avoid getting into debt unless absolutely necessary. It's worked fine for me this far. Luckily I still have my job so I haven't noticed much of the recession going on the last cpl of years (except that a few friends of mine lost thier jobs).
So no - I don't think we have seen the end of the credit card for many many years to come.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
There are many places, like parts of Brooklyn where you still can't use plastic to buy anything... Cash is king

Ditto!! I find myself hoarding more cash than I used to nowadays. Ever been in a store when their systems are down? Not fun. I don't think these workers even know how to run a credit card manually these days. Anyone remember the imprint machines and carbon paper??

Cash and carry customers please step to the front of the line!!

reply to post by withopeneyes


Noooo, I'll starve because I've already dropped three phones in water by accident..
Atleast my cards I can just wipe dry...
Ohh, but I don't have a credit card..
If you can't afford it, don't buy it

reply to post by backinblack

Yeah I'm with you, my husband drove over my phone with a tank, I dropped another one down a drain, my daughter took another one from me and now she destroyed that one, and since then I haven’t had one in like two years. And I haven’t missed it at all.

reply to post by Whateva69

Yeah I'm with you, my husband drove over my phone with a tank

Sorry, that's too funny..Look on the bright side, he missed the cat

I have paid off and closed all my credit accounts. I will never get another. I keep $50 in the bank and deposit just enough to pay my 2 bills that do not accept cash. I plan to get rid of those last 2 as the contracts expire. Now if I could only get a free piece of land where I could be left alone, I would be good to go.

I've just got to point out that vinyl is in fact making a come back, with record sales going up every year for the past five years as the sale of CD's drop. Nothing selse sounds quite like 'em.

I can for sure see this in the future but anytime soon, no. What if you're in BFE, need gas and your cell batt is dead or If you own a bussiness in a cell hole (theres many), you might as well start claiming bankruptcy.

hmmm, sounds to me like the cellular is the ultimate 1 stop convenience. You can watch movies, surf the net, talk to people, play games, pay bills, portable GPS unit and now buy stuff at a pos machine. I would bet that by the end of next year the phones will be powerful enough to replace the PC for most adults who aren't running serious games or rendering programs...

Call me paranoid but if I wanted to control the populace it just got easier.

Is the next step a built in retinal and thumb print scanner? I mean it would solve the security issues right? Hey that would mean it could replace your drivers licence and it would be a crime not to have it on you... See where this leads?

Maybe you pay with your phone or other system and not with your plastic card.
But it will not take away the whole credit system that the cards use, this will just stay the same but in an other format.

Always looking for new ways to keep people in debt.