Canada 'sleepwalking' into cashless society, consumer advocates warn

Convenience and Current Adoption

• Many commenters in Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan say they almost never use cash; some haven’t carried it in years.
• Tap/NFC, QR codes, and chip cards are seen as faster, cleaner, and less hassle than notes/coins; coins in particular are widely disliked.
• Some businesses are now card-only; others (often small, rural, or privacy‑oriented) are cash-only or give cash discounts and refuse cards entirely.

Privacy, Freedom, and Government Control

• Strong concern that a fully cashless system enables financial repression: freezing accounts of protesters (Canadian trucker example), enforcing capital controls, or de‑facto “social credit.”
• Dispute over the Emergencies Act: one court decision found its use unreasonable; a mandated public inquiry defended it. Some see the freezes as political punishment; others say they targeted specific disruptive actions.
• One side argues “if the state wants to oppress you, medium doesn’t matter”; the other says multiple independent payment channels (including cash) make abuse harder and slower.
• Worries include future discrimination by ethnicity/politics and the ease of mass surveillance of purchasing behavior.

Regulation, AML/KYC, and Market Structure

• Visa/Mastercard fees are viewed as a “private tax,” especially on low‑margin businesses.
• Some blame high barriers (especially AML/KYC compliance and network effects) for the duopoly and difficulty of launching new payment rails.
• Others insist AML/KYC is essential against terrorism and trafficking, and that relaxing it to help startups is unacceptable; skepticism exists about how effective AML actually is.

Costs of Cash vs Cards

• Cards: typically ~2–3% plus fixed per‑transaction fees, which bite hard on small transactions and encourage higher prices and tips.
• Cash: bank deposit fees (~0.25–0.8%), staff time, reconciliation, trips to the bank, safes, insurance, risk of theft, counterfeits, and slower checkouts.
• No consensus whether cash or cards are cheaper overall; it depends on business size and context.
• Some propose mandatory explicit card surcharges so cash users don’t subsidize card rewards; experience from Australia suggests small surcharges don’t change behavior much.

Equity, Behavior, and Policy Ideas

• Credit cards are seen as great for the well‑off (rewards, protections) but predatory for the poor (interest, penalties, exclusion). Cash is framed as a vital option for the unbanked and debt‑averse.
• Several note that they budget better with physical cash than with cards.
• Proposed responses: laws requiring cash acceptance; basic low‑fee bank or government accounts; privacy‑preserving digital cash (e.g., Monero‑like systems, CBDCs designed with anonymity).
• Others argue mandating cash is an unnecessary regulatory burden; focus should be on better digital systems with caps on fees and strong privacy rules.