Imagine a world where tools for payments were not necessary. Paper checks are already on the way out, and within a decade they might not exist at all. Airlines and now some restaurants are no longer accepting cash. Credit cards are expensive, and they are cumbersome to use online, where consumers have to re-enter and re-enter names, addresses, and codes. Are fluid and secure transactions possible without checks, cash, and cards? The cashless future may be closer than you think.
- One-touch, One-Click applications are providing value to both consumers and businesses.
- Peer-to-peer payments are growing rapidly and becoming a material portion of total transactions.
The trend away from physical payments has been underway for some time. The decline in checks hastened with the advent of both direct deposit and online bill pay. ATM utilization is on the down swing today due to remote deposit and a decline in cash transactions. Credit card companies have advertised to attract small dollar value transactions. While more transactions have been digitized, early efforts to create a singular cash replacement in the form of a digital wallet have not proven fruitful. Instead, one-touch payments and peer-to-peer methods are taking off. One caveat would be that a particular challenge for digital payments is moving from closed systems (Amazon One-Click or Walmart Pay exclusive to their sites) to applications that could be used anywhere.
