What happened to the Cashless Society?

ATM cash withdrawals are trending up and there’s more cash on issue than ever before. New data from the Reserve Bank of Australia reveals the number of ATM cash withdrawals is trending up in 2022. The value of cash withdrawals is stable, indicating that cash is being withdrawn for daily use, not for hoarding. RBA data also shows the total amount of cash on

Government must get tough on Online Gambling

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services is holding hearings on Friday 13 August 2021 into the use of credit cards to pay for online gambling. Committee Chair, Andrew Wallace MP has expressed his concern about the “cost consequences” on families from allowing the use of credit cards and digital wallets to fund online gambling. These concerns are shared by many submissions to the

Cash – Don’t leave home without it

When I have cash in my pocket, I’m in charge. Don’t leave home without it.

Single Parent Family Home Guarantee ignores the real housing problem

On Tuesday the 11th of May, the treasurer Josh Frydenberg will announce the budget and a new program to help separated and divorced parents buy a home called the Single Parent Family Home Guarantee. Singlemum.com.au got the details of the package early. The Single Parent Family Home Guarantee will support up to 10,000 divorced / separated parents (who have care of dependent

Payment system ‘outages’ kill cashless economy myth

Osko, CBA failures just the latest to leave customers stranded. Today, reported problems with ‘Osko’ payments between banks facilitated by the New Payments Platform are leaving bank customers stranded and angry. Customers of all banks have reported the failure of the “Osko” real time transfer system to their banks overnight on the 27 April and the morning of 28 April

Carry cash or risk going hungry.

Eftpos, bank and credit union ‘outages’ are leaving people stranded. Consumers and retailers simply cannot rely on eftpos systems to work. Some people are loading up trolleys of food and essentials only to find their cards are not working or shop eftpos systems are ‘down.’ Recent Eftpos system outages have affected: At least 10,000 retailers using Tyro eftpos terminals, leaving

Cash is still king – Aussies rush back to cash

Reserve Bank of Australia data shows Australian consumers have rushed back to withdrawing cash after an initial plunge during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 45 million cash withdrawals from Australian ATMs (worth $10.6 billion) in December 2019. That number fell to 22 million withdrawals worth $6.5 billion in April 2020 then bounced back to 35

We need ATMs for access to cash

More than seven thousand ATMs have been removed from communities throughout Australia in the last three years. The big banks are reducing their ATM network and branch network footprints and our access to cash along with it. More than two thousand ATMs have disappeared in the last three months according to the Australian Payments Network. 175 bank branches have also

Can my bank question my transactions?

Have you stopped using cash since the onset of COVID-19? COVID-19 has led to an explosion in cashless transactions. Suddenly all of our spending history is exposed on bank account and credit card statements. Cashless transactions leave a trail of data behind. It’s one thing to have online advertising targeted to you because of that item you just purchased on