The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 30, July 25, 2004, Article 14

CREDIT CARDS OVERTAKE CASH & CHECKS COMBINED

  On July 23, The Wall Street Journal published an article about
  the rise of credit cards and the slow demise of cash.  Here
  are some excerpts:

  "Whenever state trooper Michael Poupart pulls over a speeding
  motorist on I-94 in Wisconsin's Kenosha County, he offers to
  take Visa or MasterCard debit and credit cards right there on
  the side of the road.

  Drivers initially look puzzled, until the trooper explains he has a
  card swiper onboard. "Then they say 'OK,' and hand over the
  card," he says. "They'd rather deal with it right there."

  Trooper Poupart is one reason the nation passed a watershed
  last year. For the first time, Americans used cards -- credit,
  debit and others -- to buy retail goods and services more often
  than they used cash or check in 2003."

  "The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman went completely
  cashless earlier this year. The Navy issued MasterCards to all
  5,000 sailors aboard. On payday, seamen insert cards into a
  machine that electronically loads money stored onto each card.
  They then use the cards for all onboard purchases.

  The Navy estimates sailors on the Truman buy 250,000 soft
  drinks monthly. When it was a cash ship, somebody had to
  collect half a ton of quarters each month from all the Truman's
  vending machines. Those coins then had to be redistributed.
  Now it's all settled electronically.

  An added benefit: Shipmates can use the same cards while
  visiting nightclubs or movie theaters on shore, as well as to
  send money home. The Navy has even put a swiper by the
  door of the chapel as a substitute for the Sunday church-
  service collection plate, says Cmdr. Boyle McDunn, a
  chaplain aboard the Truman."

  "Some Christians see the pervasive use of plastic as part of a
  dark biblical prophecy. Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian
  Broadcasting Network, has said that plastic may signal the
  cashless society of the end times foreshadowed in the Bible.
  Mr. Robertson's network accepts contributions from
  supporters on both Visa and MasterCard."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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