A cashless society offers a range of benefits such as convenience, transparency and stability. However, there are concerns about financial exclusion , privacy and security. It has been suggested that disadvantaged groups are most likely to be disproportionately affected by the transition away from cash.
This author says that's a false narrative. If it's been a long time since you pulled out actual dollars and coins to pay for something — here's a conversation for you. It might seem like cash is slowly becoming obsolete. But, Brett Scott says it's a false narrative that we're all pining for a cashless society.
Limiting where people can spend cash causes disparities and difficulties for consumers in lower income brackets, many of whom may not have access to a bank account, and who are disproportionately from marginalized communities, said Stanley. "Going cashless is bad for privacy. It's bad for low-income people.
To be clear, most governments, at least privately, now consider cashless economies a clear policy imperative and standard. Cashless economies have much higher rates of income tax compliance, much lower rates of financial crime and fraud, and much lower banking system costs related to processing of cash.
The Drawbacks of a Cashless Society
Without cash, we would be forced to leave a record of everything we buy. While this may not bother some, there are many who worry that governments and/or corporations could use our purchasing histories as a way to track us, monitor us, and even intimidate us.
Just: The Bible says absolutely nothing about predicting a cashless society, as some people claim. And in fact, if it did, the closest passage to anything that you could call a “cashless society” is not from the Book of Revelation, but it's from Isaiah, Chapter 55.
But for the consumers who use it, cash offers significant benefits: it is widely accepted, offers privacy and anonymity, and allows people without bank accounts or credit cards to participate in the economy.
Westpac, ANZ, CommBank and NAB have ruled out going cashless, but the banks have shuttered branches across regional Australia, leaving some customers without the option to bank with cash.
Customers without bank accounts are excluded
A purely cashless society would leave them at a serious disadvantage and increase economic inequality. Those with minimal access to bank cards or digital banking services would be excluded from the economy.
Inflation Is Eating Away at Your Funds
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average rate of inflation from April 2023 to April 2024 was 3.4%. If you've been keeping your money in a savings account with a lower yield than the rate of inflation, you should switch over to a higher-yield account.
We have been issuing banknotes for over 300 years and make sure the banknotes we all use are of high quality. While the future demand for cash is uncertain, it is unlikely that cash will die out any time soon.
Mobile payments in China: How China became a cashless, mobile-first country. Mobile payments in China have become a key part of daily life causing a clear shift to a cashless society across the nation. This change is reshaping city living and making it simpler for foreign guests to adjust.
Sweden: Sweden leads the world in cashlessness, transitioning away from banknotes. With just 32 ATMs per 100,000 people and over 98% of Swedes owning a debit or credit card, cash usage is dwindling.
Cash use has been declining for years, but cash isn't close to going away. In 2022, there were a staggering 70 billion cash transactions, making it the third-most-common payment method.
A cashless society would rely on a complex network of digital systems, which would be vulnerable to cyberattacks. If these systems were hacked, it could have a devastating impact on the economy. Privacy is the third challenge raised. Cash can be exchanged anonymously, leaving no digital trail.
The concept of a cashless society has been around for decades. But with 84% of payments in the US being made digitally in 2025 according to Clearly Payments, research suggests that the transition from physical currency could take place sooner than we once thought.
In recent years, left-leaning leaders in cities such as New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, as well as in the state of New Jersey, have enacted similar laws to protect unbanked customers who rely on cash. Massachusetts has required businesses to accept cash since 1978.
When people are handling less cash, bank robberies, burglaries and corruption drop. Because cash is essentially untraceable, it's a useful tool for criminals, where digital currency is less easy to exploit, and can be shut down quickly if it falls into the wrong hands.
Some countries aim to de-dollarize or reduce their dependency on the U.S. dollar, but it is still essential for global business and is a widely held reserve currency. There is no reason to expect the U.S. dollar to collapse in the near future.
Analysis from Barclays Investment Bank, meanwhile, predicts that the global transition from cash to digital payments would reach a tipping point moment in 2025, when absolute cash usage would decline from 41 per cent in 2019 to 20 per cent by 2030.
Scripture is clear that while debt itself may not be sinful, it's also not God's best for His people. This is because when we choose to borrow money, we are putting our trust and confidence in a credit card or a lender instead of in Christ.
First, God's city, the New Jerusalem, will come down from heaven and be established on planet Earth (Revelation 21:1). Second, those who rejected Jesus will be brought to life again to receive their judgment (Revelation 20:5).
Jesus told his followers to give to everyone who asks (Luke 6:30), to give to those who can't repay (Luke 14:13 – 14) and to freely give what we have freely received (Matthew 10:8). Paul established the principle that what we reap is a reflection of what we sow (2 Corinthians 9:6).