Where even banks no longer pay out cash: Cash will soon be a thing of the past in these 5 countries

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Money is king! This still applies in Switzerland. Even though fewer and fewer Swiss people pay cash, abolition is out of the question for most of them. In other states it is different. Blick says in which states bills and coins will soon be a thing of the past.

The money would have ended in Sweden on March 24 – then, researchers had calculated, the crowns and ears would have become completely irrelevant. Cash no longer plays a role in Sweden: more than 80 percent of purchases are now made digitally. Even stores earn 95 percent of their sales through credit cards or payment apps. “Vi hanterar ej kontanter” – “We don’t accept cash” is written on many a shop door – and it’s quite legal. Even banks are no longer offering deposits or withdrawals and have shut down their ATMs.

The only things that are still paid for in cash in Sweden are drugs or other illegal products. Because one thing is clear: if you pay by card or mobile phone, the banks know who bought what and when. When it comes to data protection, the Swedes have fewer problems than we do.

However, the war in Ukraine made cash popular again, also because the Swedish Civil Protection had called on citizens to keep cash at home. Because it is always available, even without electricity and technology. The Swedish central bank has no plans to shred the banknotes. The Swedes just won’t use them much.

According to the World Bank, it is not Sweden but Norway that is the European country closest to a cashless future. According to the Norwegian central bank, only three to five percent of all payments will be made in cash by 2021. 80 percent of all transactions go through the payment app on the mobile phone. Nevertheless, the state does not want to do without cash: in 2021, the Ministry of Finance has had a law drawn up that requires banks to provide cash. On the other hand, the Norwegian central bank announced in 2021 that it would look at launching a digital currency that would then make cash truly obsolete.

Giro payment is also commonplace in the Netherlands. Only every third transaction is processed with notes or coins. 91 percent of the Dutch use internet banking. However, the Dutch are not very good with credit cards – they are not comfortable with debt. In 2020, 90.5% of all card payments were made with the debit card. The Dutch like to pay for this with their smartwatches: already in 2020, more than 33 percent of all mobile payments in Europe were made with smartwatches to the account of the Dutch.

The Finnish central bank estimates that cash will be a thing of the past by the end of 2029. In 2018, Finns made an average of 435 cashless payments. In Switzerland there were only half as many transactions. 80 percent of Finns prefer to pay by card in shops – and the trend continues. Yet the Finns stick to their figures: 61 percent cannot imagine a completely cashless future.

China is making huge strides in cashless payments. But the cashless champion of Asia is still called South Korea. With about 6 percent of gross domestic product through e-commerce spending and an average of more than 100 transactions per card per year, South Korea is well on its way to becoming one of the leading cashless countries. Unthinkable in Switzerland: more than half of the country’s 1,600 bank branches no longer accept cash deposits or withdrawals. (sf)

Source:Blick