Cash may still be king in many respects, but plastic is working its way to the throne.
A number of businesses are choosing to go cashless — accepting only debit and credit cards — and it’s legal to do so.
Flock — a Toronto rotisserie chicken restaurant franchise — went cashless in December in four of its five Toronto restaurants after calculating that cash-paying customers only tallied up 3% of business. On the door of its restaurants, customers are cautioned: “We’re cashless. Debit and credit welcome.”
According to the Bank of Canada — despite popular belief — merchants don’t have to accept cash.
“It is up to the seller to determine the method of payment accepted for transactions. No law requires anyone to accept bank notes or any other form of payment to settle a commercial transaction,” said Bank of Canada spokesman Josianne Menard.
“The Bank is often asked why bank notes are called ‘legal tender’ if merchants can refuse to accept them,” added Menard. “While the term ‘legal tender’ describes the money approved in a country for paying debts or settling commercial transactions, it does not force anyone to accept that form of payment.”
The Bank of Canada said a merchant can refuse to accept bank notes, or even certain denominations of bank notes.
Guelph was once a test site for a cashless society.
The project was called Mondex and became ubiquitous in Guelph in 1997-98. Mondex, a financial corporation with roots in the U.K., was sold to MasterCard international and it created an embedded gold computer chip which allowed money to be easily transferred from a bank account to the card.
Mondex was backed by a consortium of Canadian banks, but at the helm of the experiment were CIBC and RBC. The goal was to make bills and coins a thing of the past.
The pilot project revolved around Mondex giving out hundreds of the gold chipped “smart cards” loaded with $10 as an incentive to get people to turn away from cash. It looked good on paper.
According to a Guelph Mercury in 2014, some 100,000 cards were given out three months ahead of the target date. But by fall 1998, the project went kaput.
People were worried about privacy and civil rights infringements. David Jones, a then-McMaster University professor told the media outlet he thought the project failed because of the inefficiency of the early chip system.
http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/less-green-more-tap-more-toronto-businesses-go-cashless
I can see the rationale for cashless when it comes to corporate retail stores/restaurants. Makes it impossible to skim. But, for the vast majority of sole proprietor or family owned Mom and Pop type places…never going to happen. Why make it easier for the taxman to get their hands onto your hard earned money?