Cash is so Passé

You finally found a parking spot and you're still glowing by the fact it only took you one try to Parallel Park. You get out of the car and open your wallet only to discover that you have no change for the meter. Friends, this is the story of my life. I simply never have cash on me. I hate carrying it!

Most of us experience a cashless society briefly everyday on our commute in and around Washington, DC with our Smart Trip cards for the Metro system. Smart Trip is only a glimpse into something far larger, m-wallets.

A Japanese company by the name of NTT DoCoMo has been working on the idea for years and after testing it in Japan on small purchasing through vending machines and convenience stores; they are finally ready to take the leap into making cell phones full-fledged credit cards.

In Engadget, “DoCoMo launches mobile wallet cell phones” they anticipate that

“In addition to making payments at shops that have e-money terminals installed or using your phone as a train pass, you can buy tickets online and swipe your way through into concerts and cinemas, check in for international flights, and so forth. Most of the major banks and credit card companies are in on the act, too. There’s also a real estate company planning to let residents use phones as apartment keys; you will apparently be able to get e-mail notifications telling you who’s just got home, and even to e-mail a duplicate key to others. DoCoMo’s planning to shift 10 million FeliCa handsets in the first year and a half, which we presume means they’re going to chip pretty much every new phone they release from now on”.

What this could mean is a change entirely in the way political candidates accept campaign contributions. Forget cash and checks… it will be all about passing your phone over a kiosk at an event or even syncing your phone to your computer so you don’t have to fill in all of those fields in online contribution forms. Either way, I think the more convenient the transaction, the more transactions will occur. And let me tell you, it is so much easier spending money you never see pass through your hands… one just may contribute far more than they thought they could.