I really do consider myself to be an extremely lucky person. I have a great family, I have my health and I have a great job. I work in a really interesting industry. I get to meet some fascinating people and I also get to travel the world, which I love. Travelling today is really exciting and I have so many choices. There is hardly a destination in the world that is not accessible anymore. I have a huge choice of airlines to get me to my destination, whether it is Johannesburg, Moscow or Dallas. The budget airlines fly to unusual destinations and keep my costs down whereas the flag carriers allow me to fly anywhere in the world. And when I get to my destination, there has never been so many hotels for me to choose from which give me a wide range of local and vibrant experiences. Life today has so many choices…or at least that's what I thought!
I had three situations on my travels within the last month where my freedom of choice had been restricted and these inconvenienced and frustrated me.
The first incident happened in Stockholm. After a very long day, I was hungry and wanted to get dinner. I walked a little and found a lovely restaurant. However, I was a little taken aback by the sign outside. No cash! I could only pay by card or pre-paid card or American Express.
I was annoyed for two reasons. Firstly, I had changed some money into SEK at Heathrow airport in preparation for my trip. But now I needed to pay by card; a transaction that my bank likes to charge me for!! But hey! It wasn't the end of the world. I did have my cards with me so I could still eat.
The second experience was in Moscow just two weeks ago. It was a cold and wet night so I planned to go for dinner at a lovely restaurant called Tipografiya which was located next door to my hotel in Bellorusskaya. On this occasion I was met with an alternative sign saying…. “CASH ONLY”
Considering that I work for Glory, my first reaction was “yes! Cash is King”. Then I remembered that I had not exchanged money at the airport and now I had to choose an alternative restaurant in the cold and the rain or find an ATM.
My final example of my limited choices occurred on the flight home from Moscow. As was recently reported by my industry compatriot Ron Delnevo of ATMIA I discovered that I could not spend cash on my British Airways flight home from Heathrow to Dublin to buy a cup of coffee. I am already displeased that I have to purchase a cup of coffee instead of getting it free, following a recent policy change at British Airways, but now I discover that I needed to pay for it by card. The transaction revenue department of my Bank is loving this!!! I am starting to have a sense of humour failure on this particular trip and my mood was not enhanced by the irony of being asked, very politely by the BA Cabin Crew, if I would like to donate any loose change that I had into the Flying Start charity collection. Cash is suddenly king again on my flight.
So, all in all my recent trips have shown me that in this world that is meant to be full of choices, there are some industries (such as the payment industry), where it is considered a better customer service to remove my choices. I am struggling to think of another example in our everyday lives where our increased technology and increased convenience has led to a decrease in choice.
In conclusion, I'm left appealing to monetary authorities, financial institutions and retailers around the world to allow us to make the choice of how we want to make our payments. And from a very selfish point of view, I do hope that cash is one of those payment options. After all, the power of cash in perpetual motion provides endless possibilities.
