Australians give up physical money for card payments

We can not fight the decline of money. That goes in the direction of checks. Before long, money could be something that only old and strange people use, and other buyers will be amazed if you withdraw currencies from your wallet at the checkout.

This next graph shows how quickly money has fallen out of favor. In a few years, it has increased from more than 60% to less than 40% of transactions.

Note that Australian data has not been updated in recent years. We could easily be close to Swedish levels now. The following graph shows the number of ATM withdrawals each year. He dived. The average Australian goes 24 times a year and falls.

If you withdraw money every week (52 times a year), it is more than twice as often as usual. If you do that, you will probably notice that the queues at ATMs are much shorter now.

ATM withdrawals have gone from 40 a year per person to 24 a year in about eight years. If the trend continues, banks will likely have to pull out a large number of ATMs from the wall.

CASH is going nowhere

There is some mystery in the history of Australian money. Even though the amount we use is in free fall, it has gone up. The Reserve Bank, which prints our money, is not 100% sure of the destination.

It is not used (or at least not by official channels). The best guess is that there are tons and tons of notes out there, quiet and silent. This following graph shows how many bills exist per person. There are about seven twenty dollar bills per person. I use them from time to time, it seems logical to me. The hundred dollar bills surprise me. There are currently about 15 100 dollar bills in the world for every human being in Australia.

But where are they all? I do not keep them, I swear. I've touched maybe a $ 100 bill in the last two years!

Even the RBA is not too sure of what happens to hundreds of people using all that polymer to print.

They suspect that many of them are stored abroad by people who trust the Australian currency more than theirs.

MONITORING

Go without money will not be popular. A government that can track all your expenses is the kind of thing dystopian movies do.

But it's easy to overestimate the risks. If the money disappears, anonymous alternatives will surely appear. There are many economies in the world where an economy in US dollars rubs shoulders with the traditional economy. If the government gets rid of its cash – and it's clear, it does not offer it – people could still use US dollars. Or New Zealand dollars, Apple gift cards or Bitcoin.

FRAUD FILLS THE SPIRIT

But back to the money. The end of cash is forcing us more and more to use our credit cards. Especially online.

The more we put our credit card numbers, the more likely they will fall into the wrong hands.

This following graph shows credit card fraud in Australia. The left side shows the risky transactions made by people with your card in hand. This type of fraud does not develop at all.

The right side shows suspicious transactions made by people who know your name, your credit card number, its expiry date, and the code on the back of your card. This type of fraud is in full swing.

If you are a victim of credit card fraud, the most likely is that someone will save the details of your credit card on a website. Nearly half a billion dollars of this type of fraud occur each year.

I find it disturbing that somewhere on the dark Web someone sells the details of my credit card for a few dollars. But it's a big deal. Like many online retailers, stolen credit card sellers have recently made sales on Black Friday.

RESPONSIBILITY

I used the words "victim of credit card fraud". But it may not be the right one to use when it comes to credit card fraud.

The secret of credit card fraud is that the banks will probably pay for it. To quote the 2018 Australian Payments Network fraud report:

"Australian consumers are not liable for fraud-related losses and will be reimbursed as long as they take the necessary precautions with their confidential data."

It is unlikely that you will have to pay if someone uses your credit card – unless you agree to give your PIN to someone or post your card number. credit on the Internet. Mastercard and Visa both have zero liability policies (there are some other conditions, but they are rather minor).

Many people do not seem to know it. I still know people who are worried about using their credit card online. They are not mistaken about the risk of fraud, notice. But they are mistaken about the risk they run personally. I tell you to use your card with confidence online. And if you see a questionable transaction, let it know.

That's at least one thing we need to be grateful for when we move away from cash. The banks surely did not refund you if someone had used your money and had used it!

But it is unlikely that the banks will agree to pay the fraud forever. Before long, they might decide that card protection is too weak. The combination of the card number, name, expiry date and code on the back of the card is information that is difficult to remember, but it is easy to share online. It's like a long and complex pbadword. They call this a single factor authentication.

Online payments use one-factor authentication (they send a code via SMS) and credit cards can do the same thing. A creative idea is to add a small screen to your card so that the number on the back changes every hour.

If it becomes popular, stolen card vendors will have to work very fast to stay ahead.