Homeless guy accepting payments through Monzo.Me link

Monzo Chat
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I was walking through town yesterday and saw a guy begging for money, as well as cash, he was also accepting payment through his monzo.me link.

resourceful SOB. :exploding_head:

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2

How do you know he was homeless? Homelessness and begging are not the same thing

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Hi Gaoler :wave:

As you can appreciate, this was not the point I was making, though I am sure you knew that. :wink:

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Homeless or not, the fact he’s using tech to help is good to me, shows that as we all go cashless there won’t be a big void in people who often need “cash” most.

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The big issue guy at work has a contactless terminal which is always handy as I never have change!

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Yeah big issue is going fully contactless!
https://www.bigissue.com/latest/the-big-issue-partners-with-izettle-to-bring-contactless-payments-to-vendors/

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That’s actually pretty awesome

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8

That’s super useful. I’m basically cash free these days but would absolutely buy the Big Issue / put some money in a charity box from time to time - if I had coins. :frowning:

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Definitely, resourcefulness came to mind. The main thing is that this has inspired me to think of the difference applications for the the me link. I work in POS and I am wondering if the me link could potentially replace payment processing for small businesses, popups, stalls etc.

I have noticed in Sweden market traders display their mobile number typically near their cash register, this allows customers to pay you via your number. Not sure how the payment processing is integrated though or what the different app interfaces look like.

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10

Payment with qr code would also really help in these cases

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I can imagine if/when monzo does business account’s they’ll try something! Could be great for smaller businesses!

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Absolutely, the payment processing industry is super competitive now days anyway, with rates the lowest they have ever been.

I really think that this could potentially eliminate payment processing fees, rates and even companies alltogether with just a few tweaks and thought around usability

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Going back to the original post, the thing that might make me pause for thought would be the lack of anonymity. This is the major plus of cash - but digital money transfers are all designed (for good reason) with traceability in mind.

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I guess on flip side of that, payments like this almost helps stop homeless people being a non statistic when people talk finances or spending. Frustrates me when they often get missed when talking poverty :frowning:

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I am not sure how many people would be bothered by this :thinking:

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From what I’ve been told payment via wechat QR code is the norm for small businesses and roadside services in China.

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Tesco Pay+ is the only time I’ve used qr for payment personally and it is very convenient. Surely more universally applicable, as you don’t need NFC.

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That’s spooky. I walked past a Big Issue chap yesterday in Birmingham town centre and suddenly realised I wasn’t equipped to pay the necessary.

I thought “Wouldn’t it be clever if he could take a card payment?”

Good job, Big Issue. :+1:

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Double-edged, I guess, but for the right reason, eh?

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QR codes have been a round for quite some time, but I dont think the tech has taken off in the way many would have expected it to.

Not to say it can’t happen, China is testimate to that. I wonder what it will take though.

However using QR codes imo is just another another unnesisary step in the payment process, I think simplification is key to most things. The QR code requires opening one app to only have it transport you to another.

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