A consumer group is urgently calling on the federal government to follow other jurisdictions in the U.S and Europe and bring in legislation to stem the slide toward a cashless society.

Only 10 per cent of transactions in Canada today are done using cash, according to Carlos Castiblanco, an economist with the group Option Consommateurs.

“There is a need to protect cash right now before more merchants start refusing [it],” Castiblanco recently told CBC Radio’s Ontario Today.

It’s critical to act now, he added, before retailers begin removing all the infrastructure required to store and maintain physical money.

  • Gleddified@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Credit cards are the issue for me. An unnecessary third party skimming money (not to mention data) out of every transaction we make.

    I can’t NOT use them though, since the cash back can be too good to pass up. If credit cards were regulated into irrelevance I’d be almost 100% on cash.

    • MacroCyclo@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      But on cash or debit? That’s the thing here. Interac is fine as far as I know and cashless. It’s the credit cards that are sketchy.

      • Gleddified@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        Interac AFAIK used to be a nonprofit, but few years back became a for profit corporation. While I’m happy for the option, I’d stick with paper/metal where possible if CCs weren’t a thing.

    • folkrav@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, with an okay card the cash backs are just too good to pass up on… literally a couple thousand a year we’d be spitting on between my wife and I just making the purchases we’d have done anyway. I wouldn’t give a crap about going back to cash if it wasn’t for that.