Cashless Transactions, Worth or Problems?

At present, with the Covid-19 pandemic, people are more careful with what is called 'Physical Contact', or what can be called physical contact.

This is because currently people are worried about contracting the virus, and they are also making various efforts to reduce physical contact. We can see this phenomenon everywhere; implementation of social distancing, greetings corona, food delivery hanging on the fence, cashless transactions, and so on.

What Cashless means is a payment system without using cash. As the name implies, cashless transactions do not use paper or metal money at all, but only digitally.

Currently, there are many applications from banks or non-banks that we can use for various cashless transactions. From m-banking, digital wallets, debit cards, e-tolls, and so on.

Why did Cashless start to be widely used during the pandemic?

Indonesia has issued this cashless system for quite a long time. It's just that there are still many people who don't understand the cashless system which is relatively new.

Even a few years ago. there are still not many shops, restaurants, or hotels that accept cashless payments, other than by debit or credit card.

The reasons are various: from those who find it complicated, people who don't understand, the level of trust is still low, and so on.

However, currently, many places implement a cashless payment system. Even some places no longer accept cash payment systems, which eventually forces their customers to use cashless.

One of the triggers is the pandemic. Where many people are starting to care about cleanliness, and avoiding the spread of viruses and bacteria through cash transfers.

According to research conducted by Shobhit Awasthi et al, the interest of the Indonesian people to use cashless payments has increased quite significantly. Where many customers admit that they still want to use digital and mobile banking even though the pandemic will end later.[1]

Public interest in using cashless payments is increasing, and this is accompanied by reduced public interest in using cash.

Several factors may influence this, namely:

1. Avoiding the spread of bacteria and viruses from indirect contact through money or checks.
2. Ease of use of digital financial applications after getting used to using them.
3. The level of security is quite high.
4. It's practical and you don't need to be complicated with the return system and so on.

Of course, there are various reasons why people have started to realize the potential for cashless transactions. This is also supported by the pandemic conditions we are currently experiencing, coupled with our very limited mobility.

Is Cashless a problem?

We can say that cashless is very good progress in the financial sector. For many people, this is a godsend. However, it turns out that there are still some people who even consider it a problem.

Maybe the use of cashless is very convenient for many people, especially those who live in urban areas. Where city people are used to various facilities such as electricity and smooth internet.

On the other hand, there are still many people who are not used to using this new method. Especially people who are still clueless, or live in rural areas where they often experience signal difficulties.

Many small traders still cannot accept cashless payments. Even though many customers are used to not carrying cash, they are more used to using cards or cell phones with a barcode scanning system.

Of course, this cashless payment still needs time to continue to develop. The public also needs to be increasingly introduced to the potential for cashless transactions and their various conveniences.

All of that also requires support from many parties; from the spread of electricity and internet facilities, signal strengthening in areas, as well as easy access to various cashless facilities.

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