{"id":199240,"date":"2025-09-04T09:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199240\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T09:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:56:13","slug":"the-death-of-the-wallet-how-our-pockets-suddenly-got-a-lot-lighter-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/199240\/","title":{"rendered":"The death of the wallet: how our pockets suddenly got a lot lighter | Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

Name:<\/strong> The wallet.<\/p>\n

Age:<\/strong> The word originates from the late 14th century, meaning something like knapsack. That\u2019s how Shakespeare uses it in Troilus and Cressida, when Ulysses says: \u201cTime hath, my lord, a wallet at his back.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Hath he now? Not an <\/strong>Apple Wallet<\/strong>, then?<\/strong> It would be useful for carrying apples, or any other seasonal fruit.<\/p>\n

I meant a digital wallet. <\/strong>We\u2019ll come to digital ones. But first to 1834, the first recording, in American English, of its modern use<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A flat case for carrying paper money?<\/strong> Exactly, and generally made of leather or fabric, foldable, pocket-sized, and sometimes with a coin pouch. Also good for credit and debit cards and passes.<\/p>\n

Also condoms. <\/strong>Also condoms.<\/p>\n

I think I know where this is going. <\/strong>Where?<\/p>\n

Downhill. <\/strong>For the wallet, yes. Less than half of British people now carry a wallet, new research shows<\/a>, even though 80% admit that they still own a wallet or purse.<\/p>\n

Is this because of the demise of cash?<\/strong> And the subsequent rise in popularity and growing acceptance of digital wallets.<\/p>\n

Are we blaming young people?<\/strong> For everything, yes, and certainly for this. While the oldies, who still use debit cards, are reaching for their back pockets, millennials and gen Z present a smartphone or watch. Using payment methods such as Apple Pay or Google Pay via digital wallets are now their default.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s bad news for the Artful Dodger, no?<\/strong> See also buskers, beggars and anyone without a bank account.<\/p>\n

And cash itself? Dead and buried?<\/strong> Not completely. Although it is not the default for any age group, with 7% of Britons saying they carry no cash at all, more than half said they had used it in the past week.<\/p>\n

Where?<\/strong> The corner shop, for example, where there is often a minimum card payment, and all you want is a Sherbet Fountain.<\/p>\n

Luddite!<\/strong> But also, 60% of people said they had experienced digital payment failures, and 20% had abandoned payments altogether as a result. And look what happened in Spain and Portugal \u2026<\/p>\n

Anti-tourism protests?<\/a><\/strong> No, the power outages in the spring<\/a>, when no one could buy anything. Unless you had a \u20ac20 note in your cartera\/carteira.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing <\/strong>those are Spanish<\/strong> and Portuguese for wallet. Cash may not be king, but it\u2019s not quite for the guillotine, is that what we\u2019re saying?<\/strong> Something like that. Maybe don\u2019t take that wallet you got for Christmas to the charity shop just yet.<\/p>\n

Who carried out this survey, by the way?<\/strong> Link, the network of, er, cash machines.<\/p>\n

Do say:<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s no place for a condom in an Apple Wallet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t say:<\/strong> \u201cNooo, I\u2019m out of charge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Name: The wallet. Age: The word originates from the late 14th century, meaning something like knapsack. That\u2019s how…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":199241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[611,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-199240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115145433639245931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}