Even more encouraging is the rise of products like Square and Intuit, which lets merchants run credit cards through their smartphones. The old 9-to-5 employment model where you get a gold watch after 40 years is dead. More people than ever are working as independent contractors, which means more people need easy ways to get paid.
Take this example: I was at a party where I met a guy wearing a witty, meat-themed T-shirt, which I expressed interest in purchasing. It just so happened he had a bag full of them — I just needed to go to an ATM to get cash. Needless to say, I opted to stay at the party rather than search the streets for an ATM, meaning he lost a sale.
In the future, this won’t be a problem. Every person who makes artisanal jams or funky clothing in their basement will have a way to accept payments no matter where they are or how big their operation is.
Another area where we can expect to see big changes? Person-to-person payments. This year saw a huge jump in products that let you transfer money from one bank account to another.
(MORE: Looking Forward to 2012: Ultrabooks)
After using Chase’s QuickPay to pay rent, the idea of writing and ripping out a check seems woefully outdated. Other banks are also jumping on the person-to-person payment trend, meaning by the end of 2012 you may never have to write a check again.
In 2011, PayPal broke out several intriguing new products, including a Facebook payment app and NFC Android-to-Android payments, all of which don’t bode well for the future of cash and checks. In certain tech-savvy social circles, I’m sure there are people who barely even touch a credit card, let alone cash.
Don’t get me wrong — I’ve read the reports about the slow adoption of mobile payments in 2012. But we have to remember what we’re comparing the current progress to.
Five years ago, you needed cash to pay a New York City cab driver, lest you get an earful of angry epithets. Today, you can simply pass your iPhone near the MasterCard PayPass terminal installed in every cab and your fare is paid. No, it’s not the universal standard, but it’s still pretty impressive.
Google Wallet, Square-equipped smartphones and person-to-person payment apps aren’t as ubiquitous as analysts would like, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t on our way to a future where all of our transactions are done through computers and smartphones. The more accessible these technologies become to smaller banks and merchants, the closer we’ll be to a more convenient, cash-free world.