CASHLESS-CHECKLESS SOCIETY
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
—Rev. 13:17
606 Latest Trends With Credit Cards
One-half of all American families hold at least one credit card. Seventeen million families use three or more credit cards, and about six million families use nine or more! It is estimated that over 10,000 banks in the US offer credit card services.
Now, credit-card companies are pushing into new areas where credit can be used for paying bills:
In California, a holder of a credit card can pay his property taxes, his State income taxes, his motor-vehicle license fees—even his car and home insurance—by simply making a phone call.
Doctors, dentists, hospitals, utilities and even mortuaries are accepting credit cards for payments. Some churches and political parties hand out “pledge” cards with spaces for a credit-card number.
A growing number of experts see a cashless, checkless society around the corner.
607 Just A Number For Everyone
In a recent comment published in Radar News, Willard Cantelon said that just as the barter system was superseded by money as a form of exchange, so money will be superseded by computer accounting. There is so much paperwork involved in the present forms of transactions that the banks can’t keep up.
He says that technology has brought us to the point where satellite-coordinated computer centres and memory banks will put the transactions of the whole world into one numbered system. No identity cards will be needed—just an invisible number tattooed on the hand or forehead. Transactions from any place in the world to any other place could be processed through central control in mere seconds! Money would go out of existence.
608 No $10,000 Notes Around
Technology now exists to wipe out money—or at least reduce it to the status of small change. For instance, no large denominations US currency bills—such as the $500 or $10,000 notes—have been printed since 1946 because checks have replaced them.
609 Electronic Funds Transfer
Faced with a volume of checks that doubles every 10 years. commercial banks in the United States have been pressing harder than ever lately for the start of a checkless, cashless society.
The dream revolves around the electronic funds transfer system (EFTS) through which:
—Employers can deposit a worker’s pay directly into the employee’s bank account (“direct pay deposit”).
—Gas, electric, telephone and other monthly bills can be paid out automatically by the Bank.
—A purchase at a retail store can be accomplished simply by giving the salesman a plastic card that sends a message to the customer’s bank via a “point of sale terminal,” which in turn instantly adds to the store’s account, and subtracts from the customer’s.
“So far, the operating assumption is that what’s good for the banks is good for the country,” says Tom Waage, senior vice president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
—Associated Press
610 Automated Supermarket
Newsweek, issue of June 30, 1975, announced the “world’s first automated supermarket.” It is situated in Kokubunji, a suburb of Tokyo. The store consists of “67 vending-style machines holding 2,469 kinds of goods,” all of which are controlled by computers.
A shopper does not go in and take merchandise off the shelves, rather, the shopper looks through windows and selects what she wants by pushing a button. Next, she takes a white, plastic ID plate that is chained to her shopping cart and inserts it into a slot, activating the machine. Promptly, the goods are disgorged and the sale is registered in the computer’s memory system. When all the purchases are made and the shopper is ready to leave, a cashier inserts her plastic card into a small computer and the total bill pops out instantly and the shopper moves on her way.
The store’s prices are lower because the computer has cut labor and other costs. The store had 20 cashiers before installing the system; now it has only two. The computer has eliminated shoplifting, employee pilfering and cashier mistakes.
—Christian Victory
611 Computerized Gas Pumping
A major oil company has built five pilot gas stations near Los Angeles and three near Philadelphia that require no human attendants. The motorist puts his credit card into a slot in the outdoor computer terminal. If the card is valid, the customer pumps his own gas. The computer then issues a receipt and later tallies a monthly bill. If the card is listed as stolen or lost, the computer confiscates it and the motorist gets no gas.
612 Home Computers
Computer manufacturers are forecasting that possibly within the next ten years every home can have a computer console for a fee not much higher than the phone bill. Tied to a massive central computer, the home-owner’s computer link could balance his checkbook, pay his bills, prepare his tax returns, keep his Christmas card list up-to-date, and several other things. It could help make family decisions on matters like grocery shopping and menu-making, investment, buying and selling real estate, insurance, and charitable donations.
613 More On Home Computers
A Seattle bank offers customers a computer in their living rooms. By putting a special grid over the buttons on a Touch-Tone phone, then dialing a coded number, the customer has a simple computer terminal. He can use it to pay bills without writing checks, keep track of financial holdings, get a reminder of birthdays and anniversaries, or simply do calculations such as figuring his income tax.
614 The Master’s Charge
Above the organ strains of the Sunday morning offertory there’s a steady click-clack of credit-card imprinters as the ushers move from pew to pew.
That’s a farfetched prediction about future church services, perhaps, but credit-card use is already here. Some churches have made arrangements for members to charge their contributions in connection with special fund-raising campaigns.
One of them is the Coronation of the 950-family Blessed Virgin Catholic parish in Buffalo, New York, which used Master Charge, Bankamericard, and the local Empire card for a debt-reduction drive. Rector Eugene Radon credits the credit for an increase over last year’s drive, and now the banks are helping the church plan for possible use of the cards in weekly giving. With an increasingly credit-oriented society, credit giving may well keep the church of the future afloat, Radon believes.
Whether or not his prediction holds up his members seem satisfied with the credit idea, and other dioceses have requested information.
—Christianity Today
615 Automatic Transfer Of Contributions
Offerings received during church services in five cities may soon be slimmer, but if all goes as planned church leaders won’t be alarmed, not even if the weather keeps a lot of people home four Sundays in a row. They’ll relax and watch the money pour in—from banks and credit card companies.
The National Council of Churches is setting up a two-year experiment that will involve ten denominations with churches in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Kansas City (Missouri), Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. By signing an authorization slip once, a churchgoer can authorize Master Charge or Bankamericard or his bank to transfer a monthly or quarterly fixed amount of money to the church, and the funds can even be designated.
Computers, credit, banks and churches will be linked together under an umbrella agency to be known as ACTS (Authorized Contribution Transfer Service), based in suburban Los Angeles, ACTS will subtract a service charge of 65 cents from each transaction (and the credit card companies will charge an additional 3 percent).
NCC people say the plan is aimed at making church income more consistent and dependable, and they hope it will encourage people to increase the amount they give.
616 No Other Way
When a motorist offered her credit card for gas, the attendant shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am, this is a diners’ card.”
For a moment she stared in puzzlement. Then she said, “I think that nearby restaurant may help me out. Be right back.” She returned shortly, smiling happily. “All fixed,” she told the man, pushing a package at him. “This makes us square. I bought you four pizzas.”
—Brotherhood Journal
617 Epigram On Cashless Society
• The credit card has created an American first—instant debt.
—J. Veneziale
• Here’s a trick that’s reportedly sweeping business lunch meetings in Los Angeles: Instead of reaching for the check, each person puts his credit card in the middle of the table, face down. Then they call the waiter over, and he picks out the card of the guy who is to foot the tab.
—Saul Wernick
See also: Communications, Global.