“It has an influence on spending levels”
You don’t even have to take your wallet out of your pocket. Just a slight movement with your arm and… bingo! He payment method cashless (cashless) It has become popular in music events and festivals throughout Spain and it is now rare for the organizing company to not require its use from attendees.
In practice, its operation is simple. To pay for food and drink consumption bracelets are used Equipped with technology that allows them to function as if it were a piggy bank where you accumulate the money that you must have previously put in.
Are bracelets cashlessHowever, they are surrounded by controversy and their use has been questioned by consumer and user organizations, such as FACUA-Consumers in Actionwhich has reported several festivals to the competent authorities for impose this method as the only means of payment, a decision that he understands ends up hurting the attendees’ pockets.
Specifically, the use of the bracelet cashless involves charging a commission to recover money deposited but not spent. Furthermore, usually the deadlines established for reimbursement are shortso many people skip it or give up if the accumulated amount is small.
Facua considers that in this last aspect an “excessively short” recovery period for unused money is imposed that ranges “to the detriment of the consumer”. “It represents a flagrant contractual imbalance, since if the consumer does not act within the indicated period the businessman would obtain unjust enrichment by appropriating a full amount of a service that is not ultimately provided,” underlines the organization, which assures that the period established by law is five years (second section of article 1,964 of the Civil Code).
Spending increases almost 20%
But these are not the only threats to the pocket that consumers face with the use of bracelets. cashless. Its simple use at events and festivals can increase consumption by almost 20%according to the Report on the cashless system in Spanish festivals, carried out by IDASFEST, a company specialized in technology for festivals and leader in the sector in Spain.
The reason is that with bracelets we are not so aware of what we are spending and what is called ‘cashless effect’the tendency to pay more when there is no cash on a purchase.
“The absence of pain that is experienced when using plastic money and that, on the contrary, is very evident when using cash, has an influence on spending levels,” said the Coordinates Institute of Governance and Applied Economics.
Javier Ruperezpresident of Denaria, an association in defense of the use of cash, assured in this sense 20 minutes that “When a citizen uses cash, expenses are much more controlled than when it is done through digital or card systems”.
“The use of cash has a economic headcount effect and another psychological because everyone knows what they are spending. And also in the payment with cash there is a physical component, since we have to resort to metal coins or paper bills that are physically in our pocket. The card is also physically in our pocket but does not represent the amount of money that is being used,” he explained.
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