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News: Visa Invests in Helping Small Businesses Go Cashless - Credit-Land.com

Have you ever been to a restaurant or cafe that does not take cash? It can be a surprise, especially if you‘ve left your credit or debit card home. But this trend seems to be growing, and Visa wants to keep the momentum going, by encouraging small businesses to go cashless, with the launch of the Visa Cashless Challenge.

As part of this initiative, they ask small restaurants, cafés or food truck owners to tell them what it’s like for them and their customers to go cashless. And to make going cashless more lucrative Visa will be giving away up to $500,000 to 50 U.S.-based small business food service owners, who commit to becoming a cashless zone.

“At Visa, we believe you can be everywhere you want to be, and that it should be easy to pay and be paid in more ways than ever – whether it’s a phone, card, wearable or other device,” said Jack Forestell, head of global merchant solutions, Visa Inc.

“With 70% of the world, or more than 5 billion people, connected via mobile device by 2020, we have an incredible opportunity to educate merchants and consumers alike on the effectiveness of going cashless,” he said.

Why cashless?

In a new report “Cashless Cities: Realizing the Benefits of Digital Payments” Visa found that if businesses in 100 cities opted to move away from taking cash and migrated toward a digital model, those cities would generate net benefits totaling $312 billion per year.

In the study, which they will be releasing later in 2017, they looked at small businesses in New York, finding that they could make an extra $6.8 billion a year in revenue while saving 186 million hours of labor – all by focusing on taking digital payments. For businesses in NYC, this would translate into over $5 billion in cost savings per year.

“To Visa, a cashless culture means convenience, security and ease of use. That translates to freedom for consumers and merchants alike,” said Forestell. “The Formula E race is the ideal backdrop because just as Formula E is bringing the future to racing, Visa is bringing the future to payments.”