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Beyond the Transaction: Every Transaction Has a Story

Cash or Cashless? 50 Interns will Embark on the #MasterCardChallenge!

As a recent college graduate, I can attest to the ‘need for speed’ of my generation. We have used the Internet for the majority of our lives and expect things to happen instantaneously. Does this feeling transfer over to how we make payments? Have we given up on cash because it takes too long and because it is much simpler to make payments electronically?

I immediately think of ways to support both sides. We need cash: last week I had a pizza delivered and barely had enough cash in my wallet to tip the delivery man. But cash isn’t always convenient: I think of times I’ve been given dirty looks at CVS because I was giving exact change and was holding up the rest of the checkout line while digging for that last penny I needed.

So what’s better: cash or cashless? Can the two even be compared? We’re allowing our interns (the upcoming cashless generation) to answer this question. We have split up our Purchase, NY interns into two teams: one that will only use cash for the remainder of their internship, and the other that will only use “plastic” (and perhaps mobile). Each team of interns will produce a blog post each week to document their experiences. The interns will then promote their stories over social media and whoever gets the most syndication wins bragging rights – trust me this is important, everyone likes to win…

We are excited to see what our interns discover and what this means for the future of payments. Their struggles and moments of victory are sure to uncover valuable insights. Stay tuned for posts from our interns documenting their journey on our Cashless Conversations Blog.

Remember that this is a conversation so please chime in on our blog, or follow us on Twitter via #MasterCardChallenge, #Cash and #CardMeMaybe