During a national ATM malfunction, it became clear on Tuesday how handy it is to have cash in your pocket. Many supermarkets nowadays work with scan checkouts and the old-fashioned checkouts often also pay with a bank card. As a result, the ATM malfunction caused long queues at the cash registers. Although money is becoming more and more digital, according to Jan Beugel of the Dutch Payments Association, cash will not disappear anytime soon.
There were long queues at the checkouts in the supermarkets on Tuesday afternoon. Other stores, such as MediaMarkt, also ran into problems due to connection problems at the ATMs. So people with cash were lucky, but nowadays there are fewer and fewer of them.
Out data from the European Central Bank it turns out that the Dutch have the least cash in their pocket of all countries in the eurozone. According to Jan Beugel of the Dutch Payments Association, this is due to the way we have arranged it.
Pins cheaper for entrepreneurs
Debit card is faster and easier for the customer, but it is also often cheaper for entrepreneurs. Research by the Chamber of Commerce shows that a debit card payment costs an entrepreneur 17 cents. With a cash payment, this is an average of 49 cents.
All kinds of costs for the entrepreneur are included in this, such as collecting change from the bank, depositing money at the bank and, for example, costs of a cash drawer. With a debit card payment you have to think of the costs of the debit receipts and the ATM. Abroad, a debit card payment is often more expensive than a cash payment.
You can always pay in cash during a malfunction, but there are other ways as well. For example, entrepreneurs can create a QR code that customers can scan. After that, they can pay with a banking app. There are also mobile pin devices that use a different network connection.
Cash not to be missed
Despite all these digital possibilities, cash will not disappear in the future, the payment association believes. “Consumers don’t want to miss out on cash and as long as it does, it won’t disappear,” says Beugel.
Paying in cash has many advantages, as budget coaches Elle Loijens from Valkenswaard and Petra Verstappen from Geldrop know. “You can set yourself much better limits if you pay in cash. Making piggy banks that you see empty helps to spend less,” says Loijens.
She therefore sees many people with money problems who like to pay in cash, but that is made more difficult by shops where you can only pay by card. “Some people even give up making piggy banks because of this.”
Technical language too difficult
In addition, low literacy often causes major problems with digital payments. “People who have difficulty reading and who have money problems prefer to pay in cash,” says Verstappen.
However, this is not possible at all shops and then problems are lurking, according to the budget coach. “Digital payments often involve difficult language. Low-literate people sometimes do not understand the complicated and technical language.”
In the coming years you can therefore continue to pay with flaps, which are very useful during disruptions such as Tuesday to prevent long queues.
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