Costs stack up as payments go digital, but some insist we’ll never go cashless

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Carrying cash is fast becoming a relic of the past. While some argue it should be kept alive as a payment method, others think keeping it around will only prolong economic pain. In December, Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock warned that the collapse in the use of cash was putting strain on the entire payment system as the share of payments made with physical money shrank from 70 per cent in 2007 to 13 per cent last year, as consumers switched to digital payments . The Reserve Bank, which is responsible for issuing banknotes, signalled this month that it would…