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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/09/coronavirus-contaminated-money-fears-push-australia-to-card-payments-and-cashless-shoppingPublished by: THE GUARDIAN on 8 Apr 2020
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News Text (from THE GUARDIAN)
Digital payments soared in March as increasing number of shops refused to take cash or urged customers to tap-and-go The coronavirus is accelerating the shift to cashless shopping in Australia as fears that coins and notes might spread infectious diseases are encouraging greater use of digitalpayments.
Data released Thursday shows that in March – considered the first Covid-19 month – use of one method of digital payments alone was two million transactions greater than the total for the peak shopping month in December.
A record $1bn in digital wallet transactions were recorded in March, according to Mastercard and Visa records tallied by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Some 77% of overall digital transactions in March were on a debit card, the CBA data shows.
The credit card spend grew at 21% over February’s total, debit card use jumped 16% month-on-month.
An increasing number of shops are refusing to take cash or are at least urging customers to tap-and-go with cards [...]
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Who are The Guardian?The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference".
What is Coronavirus?Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that are typically mild, such as the common cold, though rarer forms such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 can be lethal. Symptoms vary in other species: in chickens, they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are yet to be vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections.
What is Australia?Australia, officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia. It is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
What is Cashless?A cashless society describes an economic state whereby financial transactions are not conducted with money in the form of physical banknotes or coins. Transactions are through the transfer of digital information (usually an electronic representation of money) between the transacting parties. Cashless societies have existed from the time when human society came into existence, based on barter and other methods of exchange, and cashless transactions have also become possible in modern times using digital currencies such as bitcoin.
