How 'cashless' are you? Replacing the paper personal check is the Debit card and cashback credit cards. These cards are a boom for banks, as a charge for each transaction for use of about 1%. The little family owned store in our neighborhood has a minimum purchase of $5.00 to use a debit card to off-set this cost. Amazon is pushing 'cashless stores' in some cities and more stores seem to make it more difficult to pay with cash. Even saw a vending machine that would only take cards or some sort of 'app'. I am at about 75% of my purchases made with debit or credit cards and rarely use cash for most small purchases. Guess we'll see what the future hold.
I hardly ever have cash on me...but that is something I plan on changing during the New Year. The problem with Debit cards is if someone steals your ID info on that card and empties your bank account....the bank does not have to pay you that money back. Credit cards are different and you don't lose your money if you use those....but then again if you don't pay your credit card off in full every month then you are paying interest to use that card. It's really funny though that many places would rather the cards than the cash.
Several small businesses around here won't take cards. Cash or check only. A friend who owns the feed store says they average paying about $7,000 per month to the credit card companies. They would prefer not to take cards but so many people want to use them.
When I worked downtown, the food trucks that lined the street at lunch time had these readers to take CC and debit cards. Don't like having an 'app' to pay for things on my phone or watch, afraid I'll 'tap' to purchase something I don't want. Know you can decline it, but what a hassle and embarrassment. Not sure how businesses will survive if they don't take cards.