Whether at the market, at the cash register, or even when buying a car for several thousand Euro, many German citizens pay with notes and coins. Why are the Germans so of your cash?
Whether Taxis, Restaurants, or Bars: In Germany you can pay in many places, only bar. And this is also accepted, because the Germans wear are usually enough cash around with them – to the chagrin of the foreigners and tourists, who mostly come from countries where cashless systems already exist for a long time and used. The German cash culture, but not only by the sellers and service providers, but is also part of the German mentality. But why the Germans are actually hanging on to your cash?
Fear of loss of control
“A key factor is control,” says the business psychologist Erich Kirchler, which for years has dealt with the cash the passion and the causes in German-speaking countries. “We don’t want to be patronized. We want autonomy, we want freedom and practicality, the cash offers”.
The economic psychologist Erich Kirchler know why the Germans prefer to pay cash: fear control
The Germans feared a loss of control, would replace the cash by cashless payment methods. This fear expresses itself in the view of the economic psychologists in two points: For a loss of control could mean that the citizens can be controlled by the state or the banks. Prior to that, the Germans, Kirchler feared: “This is control, fear is a major engine against the abolition of cash.” The second point is that cash represents a value in the Hand. You have its expenditure and income for a concrete vision and has the control of it.
Roots in the history
Where is the fear of control comes from, and why they are far more pronounced in Germany than in other countries, it is not in agreement. Erich Kirchler explains the fears of the Germans before the abolition of cash from the changeable German history and the resultant historical consciousness: “We have a relatively high level of confidence in our authorities. But at the same time, we know how quickly the Situation could change. This is probably not only get to know – and here I am, very speculative – in the history, but also learned and in consciousness.”
Street musician Francis Petrini noticeable that the people have less and less cash
A few countries are set to the cashless Pay so skeptical about such as Germany. A study of the European Central Bank by 2017, according to the German carry around 100 euros in their wallets with themselves. So you are the leader in Europe. You pay 80 percent of their purchases with cash you will be suspended, however, by the Italians (86 per cent) and Spain (87 percent). In Scandinavia, however, cash has become a rarity.
Sales plus thank-you-card payment
Also in the UK is “taped”, where you look only, whether with the phone or with the card. Even street musicians in the UK “buskers” called to rise now on a cash-free payment methods. Francis Petrini occurs for two years in the streets of London and don’t want to miss out on his portable card reader. He is getting more donations and sell his CDs easier. “A few years ago, I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t have much cash,” he says. “That’s why I decided to bring a portable card reader to my performances. My income has improved since then, in fact, strong.”
With this sign, Francis Petrini brings to his performances, the viewers, on a cashless basis by means of a “tap“ to donate
But also in the UK, there are critics of the quick change from cash to cashless payment methods. The London-based anthropologist and author Brett Scott knows money systems, and digital payment systems. He is currently writing a book on the cashless society. He sees the development in the UK rather critical: “the use of The term ‘cashless‘ is like Whiskey than beer to describe lots of alcohol. It does not really refer to what is used. Digital Bank payment systems. That’s why I avoid to talk of a cashless society.” He is called the “Bank society”, because a cashless society is a society in which one is completely dependent on the banking sector.
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All Savings Foxes? The Germans and the money
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Bargain hunters, penny pinchers – the Germans and the love of money
For Board Scott, and as a South African, a foreign perspective on the UK, it is a social phenomenon that many Britons welcomed unquestioningly the introduction of cashless payment methods. “One of the observations about life in the UK, which I have made, is that the country has a low immunity against the strong influence of large companies. In other countries people are major chains, have a seat. They oppose large institutions, the infiltrate everything. In the United Kingdom, however, you just accept it.”
Whether good or bad, risky or safe – in Germany, at least the street artists are using portable card readers are still the exception to the rule. The transition to a cashless society will happen but in this country, if only slowly.