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YogeeKnows

Australians get ready for questions/requests like

a. Can you please cancel OLA ride and book a ride on Uber or vice versa? #incentives #UberOLATwosome

b. Cash or OLA Money?

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They'll struggle to get anywhere asking for cash. Australians generally carry little to no cash around

Really?

As someone who has spent a long time in New Zealand it was striking to me how many places you needed cash for in Australia. EFTPOS is not ubiquitous there like it is here.

New Zealand for whatever reason I used cash a lot too. Australia you can pay stuff for small sums like $1 on card almost everywhere so no point to carry cash most of the time

You can do the same in NZ - it’s called eftpos / PayPass (PayWave in Aus). Cash is rarely needed in NZ if you’re a local.

If you only carry credit cards though you’re going to need some cash.

FWIW, PayPass and PayWave are the trademarked terms used by MasterCard and Visa internationally (respectively) for contactless payment

edited parent - I meant EFTPOS wasn't as ubiquitous in AU as it was in NZ.

Australia has regulated interchange rates so credit/debit card acceptance has been higher. Credit cards are capped at 0.8% and debit cards are lower. Mastercard published a list: https://www.mastercard.com.au/en-au/about-mastercard/what-we...

NZ's government thinks (or thought, it's changed recently) that the market would sort it out so the current rates are up to 3% for credit and 1.5% for debit, again Mastercard's list is here: https://www.mastercard.co.nz/en-nz/about-mastercard/what-we-...

EFTPOS transaction are generally fee-free for all parties.

I was in Canberra for a week late last year and I never used cash, everywhere took debit cards. Some had a surcharge for using debit over eftpos but I didn't see any shops or restaurants that were cash only. Market stalls were, unlike in NZ where mobile EFTPOS is almost everywhere.

I would hazard a guess you could make 99.5% of transactions with EFTPOS in NZ - the exceptions might be a few vendors at farmers markets (most take EFTPOS), sausage sizzles/ad-hoc fundraisers, fruit honesty boxes on the side of the road, etc. Maybe only 85% would take credit/debit, though.

From my experience in sydney/melbourne more places take credit/debit than NZ but also more places are cash only. Not as much penetration for EFTPOS.

It depends on when you were in Australia. EFTPOS fees for small amounts were essentially outlawed a year or so ago. That has made a big difference to pushing the final hold-out businesses into cashless in the last few months.

In Melbourne there are so many cash only food places that you do need to carry cash - or at least know where the nearest atm is.

I'd say those businesses will have to evolve or die out. There is a great Japanese place in our town that I stopped frequenting purely because they didn't have an EFTPOS machine, and I often have to cash on me when returning from a customer visit etc. and I wanted a snack to bring home. Since they (finally) installed one after new owners took over, I go back there frequently now.

With PayWave becoming so popular for even $1 transactions at the counter by literally waving your debit card at a machine, I haven't carried significant cash in my wallet for years now.

With all due respect, I'd say this is definitely a product of your specific location/life circumstances. I live in one of the biggest cities in North America and "cash only" is not a hurdle for restaurants here.

> With all due respect, I'd say this is definitely a product of your specific location/life circumstances.

Well, we are talking about Australia... I don't think the poster was talking about the whole world.

Thank you for enlightening us on the Australian market from North America.

When they say “cash only” everyone seems to understand it means “we dodge our taxes”. But the food is usually pretty cheap. I’d say they probably won’t evolve unless they start getting prosecuted for tax avoidance...

> I’d say they probably won’t evolve unless they start getting prosecuted for tax avoidance...

Or more people no longer want to pay in cash so their sales go down dramatically.

Avoiding tax on no or low income is a lot worse than paying tax on larger profits via electronic payments.

I totally understand the undercurrent of the 'cash only' operators - but I think that there will always be a portion of your customers who will use cash (travelling tourists etc.) as well as a large chunk who will want to use some form of electronic payment.

Far better for a business IMO to offer both - then they can still pocket most of the cash transactions without declaring, yet still show legitimacy to the ATO by having electronic payment records, which should keep the auditors at bay.

Our town is popular for market and pop up stalls all over the place, and while these used to be cash only for nearly as long as I have lived here, I have been noticing that a lot of them now have portable EFTPOS machines, or smartphones connected to Square or other payment swipers. Especially those that sell clothing or items >$20 because locals just don't seem to carry large notes around any more on a casual basis.

The only places I am seeing now that get away with this in Victoria are small towns/ holiday destinations.

I don't see the economics of cash only working anymore here anywhere where there is decent competition.

I absolutely love exploring all the food and coffee around Melbourne and I can't even remember the last one that didn't take PayPass. Even the market stalls and coffee carts have an MPOS or CBA tablet. Maybe a couple of super hipster places take cash only for the image, but I haven't actually found one yet.

In my experience it's rather the anti-hipster places: cheap Chinese dumplings, Vietnamese noodles etc, typically family run with minimal decor, overhead, wages, cleanliness and tax payments (much easier to underreport cash-only earnings). But often great food if you pick a busy place!

> Australians generally carry little to no cash around

I haven’t had cash in my wallet for a few weeks now. Apple Pay or PayPass/Wave for even small amounts is fine.

They just simply lose my business now if they don’t take card. And lots of the population is moving this way.

The old cash only to avoid taxes is only good if you actually make a decent income to avoid said taxes.

I haven't carried cash or wallet for about a year now. All I use is my phone (CommBank app, which uses PayPass network). Whether it's a coffee, snack for my kid, weekly shopping or a night out, I can barely even remember the times I've been caught out. Maybe twice in a year. Only times I take my wallet out the door is if I'm driving (I live in Melbourne and mostly walk or take trams) or going to the Doctors or something that requires ID/Medicare.

Food trucks, weekend markets, everyone has an EFTPOS/MPOS or CommBank tablet in their business now.

Out of curiosity, where do you keep your myki? It's the one thing that ties me to carrying around a thing that can hold my cards.

I don't carry cash, and quite often don't even carry my wallet, but I need somewhere to stash my myki if I'm taking the train & tram to work. Given that it may have anywhere between $100 and $1500 worth of value on it at a time, I don't really just want to throw it in a pocket.

I think your parent poster was stposting. I doubt Ola will allow cash payments in Aus. In India lot of people carry cash hence they allow cash payments from what I've heard.

I think that's just you. Most people I know still pay for anything small (like lunch or a taxi) in cash.

I've been using it more lately because it's the only payment form with any type of anonymity.

This forum is not like reddit for snarky/sarcastic comments. OLA folks are smart enough to cater to each individual local market. And all the drivers will be from local cities there.

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