Never having to have exact change is worth its weight in gold

SINCE I embraced the convenience of QR code payments, my life has been so much easier.

I no longer have to endure feeling those stares at the back of my neck as I hold up the line at the cashier’s while saying loudly “I know I have 20 sen here somewhere, dear.”

I don’t ever need to ask, “Can I pay in cash?” to that snotty girl at the coffee place who only just shakes her head.

I have also reduced my visits to the ATM so much that I sometimes forget my PIN, and the guy selling fish crackers outside the bank says he’s missing me.

Best of all, you don’t get weighed down by loose change, legal tender that you will never spend because these coins are never stepping out the door in your pocket again. Instead, they will fill up your drawers, coffee cups, empty tins and every nook and cranny in your house.

Never having to have exact change is worth its weight in gold. Though credit and debit cards have been around for a long time, they have major flaws for me. Credit cards don’t appeal to me because they tell you credit is good, but forget to tell you about the interest payments.

I’m not going to take out my ATM card to pay for parking. What if the parking company has direct access to my bank account? Who knows what gremlins are doing to your savings while you’re paying RM2.20 for parking?

So, when they came out with the e-wallet QR, I jumped on it.

Now that I’m here as far as global finances are concerned, I am looking forward to more innovative ways to pay money. Perhaps we will just have to shake hands, and the computer will take money from my account and put it into the trader’s account. But that is already here! The crazy Swedes are already doing it. Most Swedes are not even carrying cash and their shopkeepers are predicting they will no longer accept cash from next year.

ATMs will become like pay phone booths. Already, 4000 Swedes have implanted chips on their hands to make payments. Talk about never leaving your wallet at home as an excuse when it’s your round of drinks at the club!

All in all, I am pleased, as a hard-core cash user of nearly six decades, to get with it as far as using the phone QR system.

But implanting a microchip in my hands is where I make a stand. These are some activities that you may want to avoid if you’re absent-minded.

Don’t shake hands, wave for a taxi or pet your cats. Definitely no arm wrestling.

A cashless society is not a problem. But once you put a chip to make payments, how long will it be before you put other uses for that chip

The obvious thing is cellular phones. And the next one is Samsung offering to put a Bluetooth chip in your skull.

You’d be paying just by thinking, just keep intrusive thoughts at bay. And talking about intrusive thoughts, the scientists better put in an off switch too.

• ZB Othman is an editor of The Malaysian Reserve.

---