Retailers all over the country have stopped accepting cash. The reasoning behind the elimination according to multiple retailers is that cash transactions are slower and riskier than the newer options that have become available. Transactions such as debit cards, credit cards, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, Google Wallet, and Square Wallet make transactions much quicker and are safer for consumers.
Some lawmakers are saying that eliminating cash transactions is discriminatory because not everyone has access to some of the newer options that are available. Eliminating cash transactions makes it more difficult for senior citizens, kids, and unbanked individuals to make purchases in a cashless environment. So, in an attempt to stop the unfair changes lawmakers around the country are attempting to put in place laws that prohibit the elimination of cash transactions.
This past March Philadelphia banned cashless stores and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy was soon to follow by signing a law into that banned cashless stores shortly after. San Francisco banned cashless transactions in May. Massachusetts banned cashless transactions in 1978 and hasn’t made any attempt to undo the ban. As more states adopt more restrictive policies retailers will have to revert their business practices to how they were before the bans.
According to the FDIC, 6.5% or 8.4 million households were unbanked and 18.7 percent of U.S. households or 24.2 million were underbanked as of 2017. With 40 million households not able to use the cashless option why would a business want to eliminate all those customers?