Why going cashless during COVID-19 might save your life
With the global panic accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic, central banks all over the world have compelled banks to cut interest rates, delay payments on loans and even waive ATM withdrawal commissions and fees.
The World Health Organization (WHO) even began encouraging people, in early March, to switch to cashless payments to limit the spread of the virus. Concerns have mounted over whether cash plays a role in spreading the virus or not, banks in China were forced to literally launder all the country’s cash to disinfect.
Money changes hands frequently and can pick up all types of germs and viruses, which is exactly why for now it’s much safer to not use cash. Digital payments, once born out of convenience, have become a necessity for some. Thankfully, technology has given us the ability and infrastructure to manage money, pay bills and make all kinds of payments from our phones, computers and even smart watches.
To keep you and your loved ones safe, here’s why you should go cashless and keep your finances germ-free:
Account analytics
We’re all seeing a huge shift in the world, where people are beginning to make data-driven decisions to run their businesses, because data is power and the same applies to your personal finances.
How many times have you withdrawn money from an ATM and then asked yourself where you spent it? It’s not easy tracking where your cash goes, unless you write down everything you spend, but who really has time for that anymore?
Going cashless gives you power and control. You can easily track your spending habits on your mobile app and visually compare it to how much you are earning. Eventually you’ll begin to make better financial decisions, save up more money and possibly not live paycheck to paycheck anymore.
Spending tags
To make your budgeting more efficient, you can use custom spending tags to track all cashless payments you made at a certain time or place. You want to know how much you’ve spent on delivery services while you’re social distancing and at home? You can create a spending tag specifically for anything you got delivered to your home.
At the end of the month you can simply filter the tag and you get the total amount you’ve spent. Categorizing your spending will make it easier for you to budget yourself and figure out what you can spend less on or even cut.
Control your cards
Cashless skeptics will claim that online payment with your debit or credit card is not secure and the risk of scammers stealing your information is high. However, this is not entirely true because there are certain precautions people and banks take to make sure everything is secured.
Today, you are notified through SMS or your mobile banking app whenever a transaction happens on your account or you pay on your credit and debit card. You can also freeze your card if you feel like there’s something wrong, disable online payments and you can even set a minimum and maximum limit for online transactions.
Loyalty Rewards
When you go cashless, your bank will reward you through loyalty points. With every cashless transaction (credit card, online payment or Western Union) you will receive loyalty rewards that you can redeem later on at certain merchants or cash them out and even donate their value to charity.
