Barefoot investor Scott Pape has claimed Australia will not become a cashless society while also making a surprising revelation that using banknotes could soon attract a fee.
Pape made the surprising revelation in response to concerns that Australia is slowly abandoning coins and banknotes in favor of electronic payments.
Reader Lynn had written to the finance guru to ask his opinion on the matter, saying she was worried about the country becoming a cashless society.
“Lately I have heard about the removal of coins and then banknotes from the Australian monetary system,” he wrote.
Barefoot investor Scott Pape has claimed Australia will not become a cashless society and holding notes comes with its own fees.
Reader Lynn had written to the finance guru to ask his opinion on the matter, saying she was worried about the country becoming a cashless society (file image)
He said trucking giant Linfox, the federal government and banks are considering converting coins into banknotes.
“The discussion between Linfox, the government and the banks revolves around how expensive it is to ‘move’ coins around the country to regional post offices, banks, convenience stores, etc.”
He claimed the measure would reduce the weight of currency carried by heavily armed vehicles.
Lynn added the change would be “scary” as it would allow the Australian Taxation Office to track cash payments more easily.
Pape agreed the cost of transporting cash is huge, but said Australia will not go completely cashless.
“I don’t think so, as much as the ATO would love to,” he responded in a column for The Daily Telegraph.
He argued that paying in cash should incur an additional fee since it is not frequently used as a payment method.
“It’s always baffled me why paying for something with cash doesn’t have a surcharge like cards do,” he said.
Fewer Australians are using cash (pictured) to make payments and a report published by the ABA found that cash accounts for just 13 per cent of customer payments in Australia.
‘After all, accepting cash comes at a huge cost – think of merchants who have to walk to a bank with more money than a friend in a rap video.
Or Armaguard, which has two guys armed with guns driving around in an armored tank.
Pape added that he doesn’t think coins and banknotes will be eliminated permanently.
He gave an example of countries like Norway, which are introducing laws that will give citizens the right to use cash to make payments.
The Scandinavian nation’s government has put forward a proposal to change the Financial Contracts Act to allow people to use cash during transactions.
The move to change the legislation came after card terminals across Norway crashed on May 17, 2022.
Norway is the only country, ahead of Australia, that uses cash less to make payments: only three percent of Norwegians use banknotes.
A customer trends report published in 2023 by the ABA found that Australians are the largest users of cashless payments, with almost 99 per cent of customers banking online.
Cash now accounts for just 13 per cent of all total customer payments in Australia.
WhatsNew2Day Australia has contacted Linfox for comment.