There was a article on Google News that I read and it said ,, That it maybe only 3years away before Australia becomes a cashless society!!!
Boy what a thought !
I'm going to hate that !
Pete

They've been saying that for a long time. For at least 20 years, card payments via EFTPOS have dominated the retail sector but there are instances that will almost always require cash, usually small payments to those who only receive small payments, making it uneconomical to run electronic payments and on the odd occasion that the EFTPOS system isn't working. This is rare but when it breaks just after filling the car with petrol, one has to pay in cash or leave the car at the servo whilst finding a hole in the wall that is still working to withdraw cash.

Few places accept cheques these days. I remember a time when many retailers would happily cash them for free if you were a regular customer.

Not sure of the mechanism of extracting the funds but apparently it does happen

The old "one ring" callback scam: "You’ll be connected to an expensive international hotline—usually an 'adult entertainment' service—that charges as much as $19.95 as soon as you connect. There may also be a sizable per-minute fee. Those costs typically show up on your phone bill as 'premium' services."

The international version of a 1900 number.

As for going cashless, today I fronted the dry cleaner and was asked for cash. This after their fairly aggressively persuading me over a period of time to use my debit card which is a pain because it has to be inserted, I have to select the account, enter the PIN and wait for the receipt to print, whereas cash is fast. However, today, they very meekly asked me to pay cash because their EFTpos service was down.

We still have a couple of CASH ONLY shops in Toongabbie, yes they simply don't want the extra cost of running a terminal.
Also when I get the paper in the morning I can just hand over some pocket cash and run...simple.
Quicker than hauling out the wallet then the card and tapping.
So why don't I tap my phone or use the smart ring?
SECURITY.
Fred.

I try and keep as much crap as possible, off the mobile phone & banking is one. One on the bank scams gives them a one in four chance.

Mobile data, Wi-Fi etc are good things to leave off. By being abt 500m from the nearest road & dwelling the phone is out of range of that & even the mobile signal is dodgy and has been from day one of Mobile: Telstra has told me that they have no intention of fixing it any time soon. Optus however, has put in a tower close, so they have cottoned on.

There are only four major issuer's of Credit cards here; therefore by taking a punt on the first four numbers: There is the one in four probability of some one being caught off guard, thinking it is their bank.

The response to a fake call allegedly from a bank that seems to work for me:

"I have a few accounts, what account number are you talking about?" The last few just hung up at that point.

Harold

Call me old fashioned, but I've never used a card to pay for something, ever. I've never bought anything online, either. I wouldn't know how.

On the street, I restrict myself to cash or cheque.

If they don't like it, bad luck, I'll go somewhere else or not buy it at all. Fortunately nobody has objected to my payment methods as yet.

On the street, I restrict myself to cash or cheque.

Not too many business accepting cheques these days, unless you have an account with them.

Speaking of cheques, I was given one last night as repayment for a club purchase. Got to the bank too late to lodge it ... and then noticed the bank has an ATM that accepts cheque deposits so, rather than have the nuisance of catching the bank when it was open, I though I'd give it a burl. Amazingly, the machine read the amount correctly via character recognition and deposited it immediately to my account.

And the receipt contains a facsimile of the cheque.

If it was my comment referred to? With a credit card, the first four numbers are all the same within the particular bank and refer to the bank that issued it. All Westpac will have one number for all: CBA will have another for all of theirs.

If anybody can find any money in my account and get it out ! I'm willing to split it with them!
God! !!!
I had to laugh today I received a letter from the ATO and it came registered post . The letter is asking me to give them information about my income and bank accounts etc etc....oh good luck they must have me mixed up with some other bloke! My accounts ain't dry ! There dehydrated!!
There is no chance I would owe them 10 cents !
Well they can look all they want , even pop in for a cuppa and have poke around the house if they want too. All they will find is a pile of old tellies and 1950s furniture about the place , perhaps they might like to stay and watch black white TV while we have a cuppa! What I waste of time they are!

I received a letter from the ATO and it came registered post . The letter is asking me to give them information about my income and bank accounts etc etc.

If it's correctly addressed to you, then it sounds like you've received one of these: https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Data-matching-letters/Types-of-letters/

They sent me a letter earlier this year telling me to make it snappy with some late tax returns. When I finally got around to doing them I was reminded of how easy it is now, due to Big Brother pre-filling the form for me on the ATO website. All I had to do was add up my receipts for deductions, insert the amount then simply tell them that I didn't have health insurance then hit the lodge button.

A week later the refunds were in my bank account.

I won't be late again. I'd rather have my refund on time.

From the ATO website: It will also include a schedule showing information from your tax return, the relevant data we hold and the discrepancy.

Except if the discrepancy shows that the taxman owes us money and then the data matching letter will conveniently not get sent...