No matter what people continue to tell you, cash has lost its throne. At least in terms of the idea of carrying cash around with you in order to make purchases. These days, it's all about the plastic -- and even the digital money.
In fact, many Canadians would feel quite comfortable without ever handling cash at all, and many of them are in favour of a digital wallet.
Survey Shows Canadians Want Convenience in their Finances
Canadians really are ready to embrace other payment methods. Carrying cash around can be burdensome. And, some even chafe at the idea of carrying around a wallet stuffed with Canadian credit cards. Instead, some Canadians are warming to the idea of being able to use one device for all their needs -- including financial needs. Here is what the Winnipeg Free Press reports about a recent survey addressing Canadians' interest in digital wallets:
Some recent research conducted for PayPal by Leger Marketing showed that 56 per cent of Canadians are comfortable with never having to handle cash to make a purchase and would prefer to use a "digital wallet" to pay when shopping by using credit or debit cards, computers, smartphones or virtually any internet-connected device.
Given the choice, 34 per cent would rather carry a mobile phone to make a payment rather than change and 36 per cent would make mobile payments for a variety of purchases as small as a latte coffee to an iPod.
Even though 60 per cent of Canadians still use some cash for smaller, day-to-day purchases, more and more Canadians are opting to use debit cards for household expenses (like groceries), and many use credit cards for clothing. 75 per cent of Canadians prefer credit cards for large purchases. It's clear that a preference for cash is waning. Even though Canadians still use cash for some purchases, it is clear that they are becoming more comfortable with the idea of enjoying cashless transactions going forward.
Indeed, Canadians are at the forefront of financial technology. It's clear that technology, from online payments to digital wallets, can make life a little bit easier, and financial transactions more convenient.
What do you think? Do you think that digital money is the way to go?
Image source: Moneto.me via Flickr
Canadians unfortunately are no where near the forefront of this technology. Asia has used NFC and the like for years and years. Even credit card pin technology took forever to become common here.
Asia is ahead of us all in tech. But Canada is probably ahead of the US…
I can’t stand fumbling through my wallet for cash, or my pocket for change to pay anything! I would rather use my credit card, or hopefully in the future my digital wallet, to pay for all of my purchases. That’s not to say that I buy anything and everything that I want, but I love the convenience of using a credit card. For cash my bank charges if I take out “x” amount of transactions for cash, and I cannot stand that. To avoid it, my wife and I started using our rewards credit card on all of our purchases (we still use cash when we have to). It’s been about 5 years now. The benefit is that we redeem about $500 in cash back from our card annually. We always pay our balance off in full every month so we don’t pay any interest. To be able to use my phone to pay for purchases we be welcomed in my family. I don’t know much about the technology, but I’m going to spend some time researching it. We live out in the country so I assume that it may be a while before it is commonly used out here.