Cashless society by 2020??

[seedyrom]

Like clockwork
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/banking/towns-fury-at-disgraceful-westpac-move/news-story/dc5fb42254b02190c16ec54cabc0b276

[Goldseeker]

Banks don't want customers in their banks any more.   It costs them money for consierges, tellers etc.

Cheaper for them to have customers doing business on line.

The dollars save will increase their massive already high profits.

Maybe people should start putting ones monies under their mattress instead.

[serenitystan]

CBA makes a five billion dollar profit in six months..They didn't say at customers expense,sacked workers or bank closures...

[Triggersmob]

I agree with Goldie. We should all pull our money out and see what happens then.
They seem to forget they are making money with our funds.

[Basilstate]

Banking system in Oz. is a joke,should be a 'super' Tax on them.

The CTB kept the other Banks honest but Keating's privatisation fixed that,they now work together.

Same scenario with the NRMA in NSW, they kept the Insurance Co.'s,mainly London based,honest but that's gone now as well.

[gweidion]

Citizen's party is advocating for a national bank like the Commonwealth used to be.

[JeffH]

NRMA is now part of IAG along with quite a few other "brands". Scroll down to the bottom to see their stable mates.
Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG) -ABOUT US

Does anyone remember the old GIO (Government Insurance Office). The name tells you who originally owned it and they kept the others honest.
About GIO

[fred lever]

I dropped into the APO "bank" at Toongabbie and asked for $200 worth of $2 coins please.
I explained that normally I would get this from the Combank on the corner.
But  they have gone out of buisness and closed down and the advice from them was the APO could handle all types of banking.
The ever-cheerful staff there called a senior to handle this massive request.
A cash box was produced that had 1 x Armagard  $50 bag.
Oh, says the obliging young man, I have some more "out the back"
Comes out with 3 x $50 bags, cleaned him out!
Customer leaves satisfied, "Bank" will have to order more in, hope nobody else wants $2 for a couple of days!!
It's a brave new world folks.

Fred.

[jens coins]

Received a message tonight to say Westpac will not be closing our local branch now.
Our local MP tabled it in Parliament last week so obviously had a good result.
Our local Bendigo bank is booked out for 2 weeks in advance for new customers opening accounts and transferring to them.

[gweidion]

I saw something on TV where Westpac was closing a branch in Cloncurry or someplace like that and the next nearest bank is over 100 kms away. I see that has been put on hold too.

https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/8088162/westpac-postponing-bank-closures/

[nealeffendi]

Hi Fred. $200 in $2 coins is a pitiful amount. I know Toongabbie, at least 50 small shops and a couple of larger ones. Plus if you add Pendle Hill (I'm eating a steak as I type from Pendle Hill meat market) that makes a few hundred shops, mechanics, pubs, petrol stations etc in the area that could run low on change and any one of them could clear that post office out of change. If the post office is cleared out of change by the banks clients and then the post office cannot make change for those sending parcels etc then the post master will soon get peeved off at being a pretend bank. Plus a bank needs a float of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and/or get multiple large deposits. Do post offices have the necessary security like pop up screens and a decent safe as bank branches have? Will the low life scum see isolated post offices as easy marks for hold ups or break ins?
And the response will be to restrict the size of cash deposits and withdrawals. Having worked in a petrol station many moons ago I know that a single service station can deposit 25 grand every time they go to the bank. Pubs can do multiples of that daily and what the heck will they do in places like Cloncurry if the post office won't take large deposits and someone from the pub has to drive 100 plus miles round trip carrying a half million or more in unmarked notes?
Or are the problems I mentioned a feature and not a bug of what they are doing? The intent to pressure retailers, pubs, service stations etc to go the cashless route?

[fred lever]

Hi Neal, that PO looks like a target to me!
The only thing going for it is, it is within the shopping centre and so will be part of the centre security like the supermarket is.
The secure guys do react pretty fast, I have seen.
Also going for it is any scum would have to fight though the customers and merchandise as well.
But no, just like the supermarket if anybody was desperate enough, they will just belt the customers aside leap the counter and grab what they can.
Just like any servo robbery.
They wont be keeping much dough in there for sure.
The local servo, by my observation, line of five customers,  does zero cash transactions all including me just used card.
Checking with a couple of main street shops reveals that all use cash machines "somewhere else"  to get float money if required.
They rarely deposit because the flow of cash is that low.
Hence no more shops being cash only.
Most customers use their card like I do or wave their phone over the POS, like I do not.
Had to happen, on line Apps  do the book keeping for them.
Accountant's get direct data to do tax, cash is just a pest.
The glass shop has closed up by the way, probably lack of customers.
It is a changing world.
Back about 50 years ago old Franky Bell at the local garage used to keep a big roll of cash in his overall pocket.
When the petrol delivery came he would peel off $500 or $1000 or so in 10's and hand it to the truck driver.
Imagine that today! Except it would be $10,000. Frank never had a moments thought of robbery, x services type tough as nails.
Like my favourite coin dealer back then at Paramatta.
Anybody my age will remember "North Shore Coins" next to the dirty book shop.
There was a broken short barrel shotgun in plain sight behind the counter.
Imagine that now!!
Never had any problem there either, the gun could be deployed withing seconds and was loaded with two bird shot cartridges.
Don't kill them, just wing them!
I used to see thousands of dollars cash money pass through the store with gold and silver buyers/sellers shifting currency according to country metal rates.
Into the shop with wads of $100 wrapped notes, fill pockets with gold, fly out from Mascot that morning to ??.
Ah the old days........
Sorry, got carried away then....
Fred.

[nealeffendi]

Yes, these days so many go for the "convenience" of using their cards or worse yet their phones. Working pub security I regularly have to turn away youngsters who go to show their drivers licence on their phone only they find their phone has gone flat, they don't carry the actual licence on them. And I find misplaced phones regularly (2 so far this week) that customers lose. No phone means no ID, no access to any money, no Uber ride home and the worry that someone is tap and go using their phone.
When I worked in service stations (graveyard shift) I was never held up, but the shift before me was. The next servo up Parramatta Rd had the Greek lady who owned it shot dead as she was heading to the bank.
Wish we could carry at work, carrying 6 figures every night keeps you looking 360 degrees for anyone who might want to grab the loot and run.

[gweidion]

My first real job was with a bank in Brisbane city. We used to pay one of the big corporate's staff next door each fortnight but one fortnight their cheque machine broke so they wanted a bit over a million in cash. This was 1980 and we didn't have that much so the manager just wrote out some warrants and sent two tellers and me off to other major city banks. I went to the ANZ on Queen and Creek and picked up $360,000 in a bank bag by myself as a new 18 year old batch clerk and walked it back to my branch by myself, no support. Ah the good old days.

[serenitystan]

When I was a kid my dad worked for the Sydney water board and received his wages every fortnight. He would come home a bit late on payday and take off his boots that were stuffed with five pound notes..