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Payment giant Visa is offering small businesses in the US thousands of Dollars to go completely cashless.
50 small food service providers will each receive up to $10,000 towards the cost of upgrading their payment systems if they agree to stop using paper money all together. All the business has to do is to tell Visa what going cashless means for them, their employees and their customers.
Visa, which processes more card transactions globally than anyone else, says it wants to “create a culture where cash is no longer king." According to its own research, going completely cashless could help cities rake in an extra $312billion a year. In New York City alone, businesses could save over 186 million labour hours by going digital, they say.
Those chosen for the grant are free to spend what's left of the $10K on marketing and promotion. The offer will eventually be extended to other types of businesses, and into different countries, say Visa.
“With 70% of the world, or more than 5 billion people, connected via mobile device by 2021, we have an incredible opportunity to educate merchants and consumers alike on the effectiveness of going cashless,” says Visa's Jack Forestell.
Cash still accounts for over a third of all payments in the US however, while some small business owners may be sceptical about Visa’s attempt to reach out to them, given the processing costs they’ve previously levied for their services.
What do you think, should restaurants go cash-free? If you’re a business owner, is the kind of initiative you can get on board with? Let us know over on our Facebook page.
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