Denmark intends to get rid of the obligation for its retailers to accept payment in cash and instead push its citizens into a cashless society.

This new world of payments was enough for Sonya Feldoff of ABC Adelaide to spark another of our regular chats looking at the Future of Money.

In the foreseeable future Australia will continue to have notes and coins, but we are moving swiftly to a less cash society with the Reserve Bank estimating that Australian’s on average made 380 non-cash transactions in 2014 up from 210 transactions a decade ago.

As technology, culture and economics continue to make it easier and more acceptable to purchase using plastic or mobile devices we will continue to see this number of cashless purchases escalate. This will be further fuelled by the recent advent of tap and pay technologies and the rise of more retailers accepting low value transactions, which was historically where most cash payments were made.

Add to this all the new non-bank disruptor’s emerging in this transaction space, new financial apps, bitcoin and blockchain inventing new forms of digital currency and many of our tech giants and mobile phone providers developing their own payment systems and we’ve entered a brave new world, where cash is no longer king.

Dr Paul Harrington of Deakin University and many callers joined the discussion as we explored credit card security, safety, new payment technologies, the decoupling of cash causing many people to spend beyond their limits, credit card surcharges, the black economy, industries that still prefer cash and lots more.

Great discussion so have a listen now (24 minutes 40 seconds) and then let me know your thoughts on the future of cash.