thewayne: (Default)
In their recent national elections, Swiss voters, by a resounding 73.4% rate, approved a measure to guarantee that people would be able to continue to make cash transactions into the future. The rate of such transactions dropped greatly with the Covid pandemic: only 30% of shop transactions were cash-based in 2024.

There are concerns that governments can trace your financial history, and if they disapprove, shut it down. Famously, Canada shut down the banking of some protesters in 2022 of the Freedom Convoy (it was later restored). There's also the difficulty of giving money to the people who are unbankable or unhoused, whether temporary or long-term.

Switzerland joins Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia in the guaranteed cash market, Austria is considering a similar proposition.

https://www.politico.eu/article/switzerland-cash-right-constitution-vote/
thewayne: (Default)
It's most applicable if you have multiple cards in it.

Recently I opened up my bank account online and found, much to my surprise, a balance on my credit card! It should have been zero. The amount corresponded to a recent online purchase that I'd made through Paypal, but I told PP to use my debit card, so it should have gone to my checking account.

Yesterday, I made an eBay purchase, again using Paypal, and this time I paid attention.

The order of my cards had changed! My credit card had been at the bottom of my list, it was now at the top! I don't know why, the last four digits of the card would have placed it after my debit card, and the bank name is the same. I marked my debit card as Prefered, so hopefully this won't happen again.

Dunno what happened, but something to keep an eye on if you don't want your credit card to be accidentally used!
thewayne: (Default)
Venmo and Paypal, though it makes certain parts of our financial life much easier, are not banks and not safe places to store money. Since they are not banks, they are not federally regulated and not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which insurance bank accounts (savings and checking, not investments) for up to $250,000. This includes Apple Savings as not being insured, but does not include the Apple Card's Goldman Sachs savings account (paying more than most CDs at 4.15% APR) as Goldman Sachs has a Federally-recognized banking side, and thus insured by the FDIC.

I've never had more than $50 or so sitting in my Paypal account from a refund or something, and that'll be gobbled up in a Humble Bundle purchase or three, or I'll move it back into my bank.

https://apnews.com/article/venmo-paypal-cashapp-p2p-payments-deposit-insurance-f89eba2486a383160b9343e2e4e60b3f

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