There’s been a lot of talk about Europe trying to move closer to being a cashless society but I wanted to find out whether I could live in London (seen as a leading city in technology) today as a cashless member of society.
Modern Experiment
I decided to do an experiment where I would only use my smartphone to go about my daily life for a week… read on to find out how it turned out.
Disclaimer: For this experiment I used Zeux for my mobile payments
Rules:
1. I can only use my smartphone to travel, to buy things and transfer money to people
2. For this experiment I am using Samsung Pay
Monday
8:00am
I’m out of the house and on the way to work, I usually stop off at the Pret a manger near the office and pick up a tea and something for breakfast. It’s time to pay, taking out my phone I activate my Samsung Pay with my fingerprint and ‘beep’, payment done and I’m off. Good start.
12:30pm
Finding something to eat to calm my hunger is a normal routine, but I decide to visit one of the local street markets to see what they have to offer. Today’s choice: Korean chicken. “Do you take contactless payments?” I ask. “Yes, no problem” came the answer. Good news! Whipping out my phone and a quick touch I’m headed back to enjoy the party in my mouth.
3:00pm
Afternoon break and a stretch, quick check of the app and I see today’s breakdown of my transactions. Need a quick pick me up, I decide to grab a can of coke but this time I was faced with one of those fancy pay terminals but no contactless pad. Uh oh.
Thankfully, there was a way to enter my card details, so I opened the app to check my card number and input it in on the touchscreen. Payment approved. A bit long winded but so far so good, back to work.
Tuesday
8:50am
I’m grabbing a quick bite before a 2 hr meeting and pop into the nearby Tesco’s. Orange juice, a protein bar and an apple. With the self checkouts, it’s a lot easier to pay, select pay by card, double press of my on button to activate Samsung Pay and beep. I’m getting used to this.
10:00pm
It’s been a long day but it’s a meal out with friends to wind down, steak and salad with a cheeky side of fries or frites as the french would say. It’s time to pay the bill, my part £48. I’m about to pay with my phone and the waitress points out that it’s only £30 maximum with a contactless card. Argh, the cashless experiment has been stopped in its tracks.
Then I remembered that, supposedly this limit doesn’t apply to Apple Pay or Samsung Pay, so I kindly ask the waitress if I could have a try, she gives me that “look, I’ve just told you it’s not going to work” look, but willingly let’s me try. Beep. Transaction approved. To the waitress’ amazement remarks “oh wow that’s cool, I’ve not seen that before.”
Contactless card limit: 0 , Mobile payment: 1
Wednesday
12:06pm
It’s mid-week and I’ve been stuck in the office so I ask a co-worker to grab me some lunch and I said I would pay her back. 15 minutes later, she’s back with a trusty ‘meal deal’ and some extras. “You owe me £4.30” she says.
Normally this is a pain, because I’d have to find change or a note and somehow do that awkward “have you got 70 pence?” exchange and then end up agreeing to pay her back later. Luckily, with the app I can just tap her name and type the amount I want to pay, £4.30, send. In a few seconds, she’s received the money. It’s quick and convenient.
Thursday
07:06pm
I didn’t mention it until now but London’s public transport really has made it more convenient for the commuter. Being contactless friendly, means I can use my phone to pay while ‘offline’ in the underground or jumping on and off the bus. The only drawback it seems is the transaction comes in overnight, probably because this is when TFL works it all out. It’s not all bad though, at least now I know when it happens so I’m not caught by surprise.
London having the infrastructure obviously makes a huge difference but it’s been like this for the past 5 years.
18:43pm
Need to do a bit of food shopping, cooking a meal for friends tonight. Popping into my local Waitrose I grab the ingredients for tonight’s meal, chicken and vegetable stew. Beep, beep and one final beep. It’s Chef time.
Weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun)
It’s everyone’s favourite day, Friday! After work drinks and a couple of rounds later, I’m tipsy, happy and time for bed.
Saturday morning, I’m awake and I see a few spending notifications from the app on my phone. I guess this is the part that’s good and bad. Spent a bit more than I would have liked on the drinks the previous night and a gentle reminder that perhaps I should have been more careful.
Saturday evening, I’m at another restaurant, it’s one of those family owned ones, the food - fantastic, service — very good BUT as I thought my cashless journey was almost complete without issue, I encountered the first real hurdle. The family restaurant didn’t accept contactless payments.
They had a very old pay terminal but it could only accept PIN and swipe. My friend who normally uses Apple Pay was unable to pay and had to pop out to get cash from an ATM. I had Samsung Pay. Not many people know this but Samsung Pay has additional technology that allows it to be used on swipe card only terminals too, i.e. it doesn’t have contactless.
I was a bit nervous to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect and everyone on the table was looking at me like I was mad. I activated the Samsung Pay and moved my phone around the terminal, nothing happening…. and then Beep. It worked! Everyone was surprised and impressed, I know I was although probably more relived than anything. Pay technology has made some incredible movements, hello future.
So is London a cashless city? It certainly can be. The technology is already here…
Conclusion
So is it really possible to be truly cashless in London and how close are we to becoming a cashless society?
It’s Sunday evening, relaxing at home, I managed to make it through the week. Overall, I would say 99% of the time I never had to reach for my wallet to pay with cash, wherever I was able to pay with contactless card I was able to use my mobile phone.
So what is that 1% and is it a problem? From my experience, I could see where this may be an issue with small businesses or at least businesses that haven’t been willing to update their payment options. Cash only, or very old pay terminals. However, as consumers are becoming more dependent on contactless payments, it is more likely that a customer would rather go somewhere else that does accept it, than carry unnecessary cash.
So is London a cashless city? It certainly can be. The technology is already here and for those embracing the new trend in pay technology, they can enjoy the convenience and simplicity.
