Pay With Anything But Cash

Standing in long queues at the ATM for some cash or searching your wallet for change on busy buses could be irritating. At some point we wouldn’t need cash any more. Just a swipe with your bank card, credit card or travel pass and the payment is done. In Hong Kong, the Octopus Card, initially just for public transport payments, can be increasingly used for payments of other services, like food at restaurants or groceries at supermarkets and convenient stores. The card can even used for paying entrance fees of almost every main attraction in the city.

The Octopus card is not just a card, but actually a chip that can be build in key chains, jewelry and watches, which is very popular at this moment. Furthermore, with the popularity of smartphones, the French are setting up a trail for travel passes built into these devices. The Navigo card will be integrated in smartphones and it could be renewed by online banking, which saves time and trouble. The trail will be launched in Spring 2012 and will last two years on Veolia networks in Paris.

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