I can remember it like it was yesterday there I was in Victoria's Secret happily shopping for my trousseau. In that euphoric moment I thought I had everything under control then I looked down and noticed the flap on my purse was open.

I lifted the flap and sure enough my wallet was gone. I had hundreds of dollars in the wallet that I planned to use on my honeymoon. I was getting married the next day and now my cash was gone and so was my identification. 

As a Jamaican woman, I was still carring my Green Card and it was stolen along with my wallet.  

I had to jump through hoops to get to my honeymoon in Cancun Mexico.

As soon as I returned home, I became a United States citizen.

Recently I noted that some people are saying cash is going out of style and we will soon be a cashless society. Imagine that.

It seems a cashless society is not as far off as it may seem.  current trends indicate that the cashless society has begun and is already well integrated into our daily lives. 

Here are two products currently on the market that are part of the cashless society:

Square – squareup.com

This is a neat little device that allows you to Swipe all major credit cards with no additional fees only a 2.75% per swipe.  No contract required and no minimum. 

If you type in the card information manually, the fee is 3.5% + 15¢.  

It works with any of your devices iPhones, ipads, itouch, etc.  Just plug it in, sign up, and start charging credit cards immediately.

They make it easy for you. Square cost me $9.95 at the Apple store and included a $10 gift card. So essentially it's free. 

One nifty use for it is this. Let's say you're out to dinner with friends and some of them have no cash on them instead of having the waiter create separate checks you can swipe your friend's credit card for their portion of the meal and then have the waiter charge the entire meal to your card knowing your friends portion for their meal has already been deposited into your account.

Business owners who wish to accept credit cards can also use this method to get up and running quickly.  

You can learn more about how people and businesses are using Square at this link.

Level up – levelup.com

This one is a zero charge network that many stores have already put into place.  LevelUp is a mobile payment network. Customers pay with phones, instead of cards or cash. Not only is this fast, secure and convenient, it means we can offer a 0% payment processing rate.

All you have to do is link a credit or debit card to get your unique code and paying with LevelUp is just like using your own card only faster. You pay by scanning your own code at the counter. 

Many stores are already running campaigns to get customers to use it while providing rewards to the users. 

Yesterday's announcement that Starbucks has partnered with Square and announced the launch of a nationwide cashless payment system is a sure indication that a cashless society and cashless payments are here to stay 

Howard Schultz, Starbucks chief executive, will join the Square Board of Directors as part of the deal.

 

Twenty years ago I carried the cash for my honeymoon spending and it was stolen. Today I hardly need cash.  I use square.  

How about you?  Are you part of the cashless society?  Your comments are welcome.

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