Anything that limits your rights can hardly be taken with sympathy. The restriction of cash payments in cash and carry stores (Metro, Selgros, etc.) causes dissatisfaction among small traders who take the collected money in the evening and go to replenish stocks.

“Consider that there are more than 60,000 small traders, many of whom have shops in rural areas where they pay exclusively in cash. Customers come in and pay in cash, some walk down the mountain to stock up. In the evening, the owner went to collect cash and replenish supplies, and now he lowered our ceiling. So where and how can I put money on the card at that time to pay for my goods with a card?”, explains the founder of Paco Supermarkets and vice-president of the National Association of Small and Medium Businesses, Feliciu Paraskiv, in a discussion with HotNews. Traders the size of Romania – ANCMMR.

Retailers say it was fine to leave the option of paying with cash or card up to each individual. “It seems abnormal to me to be banned. Maybe I like hearing the rustle of money when I make a payment! Why will I be banned?” – asks another small business entrepreneur.

And there is something else, says Feliciu Paraskiv. “Card transactions for each person have reasonable commissions. But with a company card, the fee increases to 3%. Well, if I buy cigarettes, which I can only sell at a certain price, or buy oil, where the margin from the beginning is 3.2%, then all this markup goes to the bank’s commission,” says the businessman.

In his opinion, the problem is related to the lack of banking services in the village. “In the village, without ATMs, without bank tellers, because they canceled them, what should I do? Even if I had one of these ATMs where I could access the card, what should I do? I walk out with 50,000 lei every night and spend two hours at an ATM to withdraw my money? And how safe do I feel with all that money walking night after night with a bag to the ATM? So that someone can see that I come every day with a bag of money and expect that one evening I will hit my head!”, says the vice-president of the National Association of Small and Medium-Sized Traders.

The Association of Small Entrepreneurs says that it was not called to the consultation regarding the limitation of cash payments. “But still, even if we had expressed our opinion, we would not have been taken into account. As it has happened many times, the latest is the case of the Law on the Guarantee-Return System,” Feliciu Paraskiv believes.

Finance proposed this measure (restriction of cash payments) with the idea of ​​reducing tax evasion. Good intentions, but it can backfire.

The idea of ​​a cashless society may be attractive and obviously has its advantages, but there are also disadvantages.

Seniors may be less comfortable with new technologies and less able to transition from physical currency to electronic transactions

Rural communities are also vulnerable due to poor connectivity in some areas

Threats from organized cybercriminals are very real, and they often find new ways to break security protocols. That’s right, there’s a balance here: in a cash-only world, you can be targeted by physical thieves, and in a cashless society, you risk being targeted by hackers.

When you pay digitally, you always leave a digital footprint that is monitored by the stores you shop at or banks. Some people are uncomfortable with the fact that their data may be sold to third parties for marketing purposes.

Many people also find that when they shop with a card, you buy more than you need, while cash limits your overspending.

In an unpredictable world, there are always concerns about system vulnerabilities. How sustainable is the technology that supports a cashless society?

Natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or just maintenance or other accidents can cause a bank’s computer system or network banking application to crash, and you won’t be able to buy what you need at that moment (concert tickets, where, if you don’t buy within the first 30 minutes after going on sale you will not get a seat)

Or you can simply come with the card to a mountainous or rural area where the village store does not have a POS terminal and you need cash to buy a regular bottle of water.

• Read also: Maryan and the cashless society. A short request in favor of cash