Is there a relationship between how we pay and what we buy?
Electronic transaction providers have beeen striving to make payments frictionless. Credit cards enable payments when the funds are not available. Contactless payments no longer require a PIN code. And mobile payments don’t require a card at all.
But by removing the ‘pain to pay’ it also becomes harder to resist the little snacks and unncessary purchases and treats. Research[1] conducted in 2010 concludes that consumers are more likely to buy unhealthy food products when they pay by credit card than when they pay in cashMoney in physical form such as banknotes and coins. More. Indeed, the pain of paying in cash can curb impulse purchasing of unhealthy products.
Claudia Hammond, author of a new book, Mind over MoneyFrom the Latin word moneta, nickname that was given by Romans to the goddess Juno because there was a minting workshop next to her temple. Money is any item that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular region, country or socio-economic context. Its onset dates back to the origins of humanity and its physical representation has taken on very varied forms until the appearance of metal coins. The banknote, a typical representati... More, and a presenter on BBC radio, says “No-one has measured that yet, but I would say (contactless cards) will divorce the pain of paying from the actual transaction again.”
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[1] How Credit Card Payments Increase Unhealthy Food Purchases : Visceral Regulation of Vices, by Manoj Thomas, Kalpesh Kaushik Desai and Satheeshkumar Seenivasan. Journal of Consumer Research Vol. 38 – June 2011