The time when the cashless society becomes reality is drawing nearer
and nearer. Many methods are already being used in the trade world.
EPOS (Electronic Point Of Sale), for example, is only a first step of
progress in electronic shopping. The customers will sit at home
5 surveying the merchandise on their television screens and ordering their
requirements - and they will have their funds automatically and invisibly
transferred from their bank account to that of the store.
Already, shopping over the phone, by quoting credit card numbers,
has much the same effect. This plastic money, too, is advancing into an
10 era of automatic debit and credit - soon those tedious waits while sales
staff get your credentials checked over the phone will be a nuisance of
the past. Modem equipment 'wipes' the card in a flash, checking that all
is in order. What the new technology can't yet do, though, is to check
that the person presenting the card is, in fact, you!
