Are Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) Moving Us to a Cashless Society?

July 19, 2017, 09:10 am ET, BY Jeff W.- Contributor| Editor: Thomas H. Kee Jr. (Follow on LinkedIn)

Is the world moving to a cashless society? Sweeden is the first country to not accept cash as a form of payment. Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) are ramping up efforts to stop merchants and consumers from using cash. Both of these companies had transactions of $4.3 Trillion in payments last year which is more then double from 10 years ago.

Cash is still the largest payment instrument used at 32%, however credit and debit are catching up to cash and they are at 27% and 21% respectively.

Some ways Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) are working toward a cashless society are as follows:

1. Visa Inc (NYSE:V)  recently announced a $10,000 reward to 50 restaurants each that would agree to give up accepting and using cash.
2. Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA)  first started taking on cash in 2010. 
3. More recently, the company has been signing deals with third-party payment providers to help advance the change from cash to card in certain sectors including education and rent.

It is still a long way off to have a cashless society, but the momentum seems to be going in that direction and because we live in an electronic age, the change could occur sooner rather than later.

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