Poor Visa! The company now wants to pay people to use their product…

In an unprecedented act of despair, Visa announced plans to pay thousands of dollars to 50 small merchants. They would receive the money for restricting their customers’ choice when it came to payments by no longer allowing cash payments. In Visa’s own words, this is part of the company’s "strategy" for “putting cash out of business”.

Maybe Visa should be asking themselves instead why people prefer cash, a mode of payment that

• does not incur any cost for the users, cost which then go straight into the company’s profit pocket;
• can be used by anyone and everyone, regardless of having a bank account or not;
• is not driven by the commercial interest of individual market players;
• ensures privacy;
• is quick, convenient, easily available;
• has no entrance or registration hurdles.

According to the company’s own statistics, “check and cash transactions [in the US alone] are up about 2% from a year prior”. Meanwhile, cash in circulation globally is growing at 5% annually.

Way to go Visa!