Challenges to a ‘cashless’ world

BBC News
Friday, February 13, 2009

The global credit crunch has delayed the shift from payments being made by mobiles instead of dollars or pounds, according to technology experts.

Some believe it will be three to five years before money goes out of fashion and a truly cashless society emerges.

Experts in the Silicon Valley say many hurdles still need to be cleared to move the system into the mainstream.

These include technology challenges as well as high up-front costs, security and enough of the right type of phone.

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“There are a series of hurdles to overcome before the reality of contactless payments happens,” said David Robertson of the Nilson Report, a journal covering payments issues.

Niche market

“The technology is there although when you think about having a chip in a phone to make contactless payments at the point of sale by waving your phone across a reader, there are only 10% of the handsets in the world that can do that.

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