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Cash machines in Copenhagen. Danes haven’t needed to carry cash or even bankcards since payment via smartphone was introduced two years ago. Photograph: Fabian Bimmer /Reuter |
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Wallet, no worries: Denmark considering cash-free shops
Politicians to vote on proposal to let retailers accept only card or smartphone payments from 2016
In Stockholm you can pay a street hawker with a credit card. In Copenhagen you can buy a single shot espresso with your smartphone. In Helsinki, you can go grocery shopping but leave your wallet at home.
Scandinavia has long been the most cashless place on the planet. Now Denmark is considering whether to go a step further and allow retailers to ban cash altogether.
The Danish Chamber of Commerce is recommending that shops and services be given the option of going completely cash-free. The proposal needs to be approved by parliament but if it gets the green light, retailers could begin rejecting cash from January 2016.
“We’ve recognised what merchants have been telling us for some time now,” says Sofie Findling Andersen of the chamber of commerce. “Using cash is expensive, because it takes time for salaried employees to handle, and it’s also a security concern. Carrying cash opens you up to attack and even though we have relatively low levels of violent crime in Denmark, this is something business owners and employees tell us they worry about.”
There has been little resistance to the proposal from Danish media, consumers or businesses so far, with the country’s largest supermarket group, Dansk Supermarked, working on a system for cash-free grocery shopping with the mobile money transfer system MobilePay in the near future.