What You Need to Know About Going Cashless

January 20, 2022

Not too long ago, cold hard cash was an essential in life, allowing us to make purchases anywhere. Fast forward to today, and it seems like paying with cash is becoming obsolete. This is due to the fact that today’s technology easily allows us to do virtually everything without it.

A cashless approach to your finances can come with several benefits, including:

  • Better security – Cash alternatives, like debit cards and credit cards, come with enhanced security features that protect you from theft and fraud. When cash is lost or stolen, it’s typically difficult, if not impossible, to trace or recover. 
  • Greater acceptance – More and more often, merchants are converting cash registers and self-checkout terminals to card-only points of purchase. This can make it more difficult to make purchases with cash in some of your favorite stores. Not to mention, online merchants require card information and don’t accept cash.
  • Faster purchases – Swiping or inserting your debit card or credit card is a speedy process that takes just seconds in the checkout line. With cash, the process is slowed down, requiring time for shuffling through bills and coins, counting the amounts, and collecting the change.
  • Improved accounting of your spending – When you make your purchases with a credit card, your credit card statement provides you with a detailed recountment of every purchase you made. Similarly, when you use a debit card, it logs your transactions into your checking account statement, so you can see what you’re spending and where. This makes it easy to assess your spending each month and make adjustments when needed.

While going cashless is effortless and natural for some people, it may be more of a challenge for others. Here are some easy ways to work a cashless approach into your financial habits.

Using a credit card

One of the most convenient ways to go cashless, using a credit card also gives you a number of other benefits. With a credit card, you have plenty of purchasing power and the ability to make purchases and payments almost anywhere, so it’s incredibly flexible. Plus, it’s secure, protecting you from fraudulent purchases if it’s ever lost or stolen. You can even choose a card that earns you rewards.

To use a credit card in place of cash, plan on paying off each month’s purchases in full, rather than simply making the minimum payment. When you run into unexpected expenses that surpass your budget, you can always use your credit card as a financing tool.

Using your checking account

Another tool to help you go cashless is your checking account. Use your checking account’s debit card in place of cash at merchants and for online purchases. It’s fast and easy at checkout – plus, it offers greater security. It’s also great for those who don’t want to use a credit card or don’t have credit. In addition, you canuse online or mobile banking to make payments right from your checking account without using cash.

Use a digital wallet

To make merchant payments even faster, easier and more secure, consider a digital wallet. Using your debit card or credit card information, these apps allow you to make purchases with your mobile device at participating merchants. Because the actual card number is not provided to the merchant, but rather a one-time transaction number instead, using a digital wallet is very secure. Digital wallets include Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay.

As you can see, your options for going cashless are flexible and easy. For assistance with cashless tools available to you, call us at 800-696-8628, and we’ll be happy to help.