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The UK has an NGO to defend cash: “Payment Choice Alliance”. What about Belgium? (www.paymentchoicealliance.org)

submitted 1 week ago by ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io to c/Belgium@europe.pub

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Forced-banking has become a reality in Belgium. SPF Finances quit accepting cash payments for tax in 2019. Electrabel, Luminus, Totaal Energy, and Vivaqua all refuse cash payments for essential services (water and power).

It has become impossible to live in Belgium without being forced into the marketplace to patronise a bank. Effectively, you have no right to boycott banks in Belgium.

Consequently, banks have no incentive to earn your business. One bank has closed its doors and shut down its web portal, forcing customers to continuously buy recent Android phones and maintain a Google account to run the bank’s app (the only means of access to their account).

So the question is, what non-profit NGOs are standing up for consumers and human rights on this issue? Who can we support and collaborate with in order to fight for our right to use cash in Belgium?

According to the European Central Bank, surveys show 60% of Belgians want the option/right to use cash, while only 45% of the population actually use cash. The 15% of cashless people who want the cash option will probably grow until cash is wholly eliminated -- because not using cash empowers forced-banking.

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[–] Kickforce@europe.pub 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There has been a movement to remove cash for a long time. Banks still have an incentive to earn your custom as there are (still) different banks so you get to choose, though a lot of the old banks have fused in the last decades. Every time I open a new account to avoid depending on one bank, the banks fuse.

In 1995 there were a lot of hold ups of cash transports. I thought back then that they were part of a push to reduce the use of cash.

Covid did a lot more to reduce the use of cash.

Since most services that pay wages or pensions require a bank account it's not that new. Personally I don't mind having digital money only, but I would prefer if the bank of the national postal service would still offer low cost bank acounts.... but they got fused with a private bank.

[–] ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io 1 points 14 hours ago

There has been a movement to remove cash for a long time.

Yes, Bill Gates and his “Better than Cash Alliance” are working diligently to impose forced-banking on everyone, to get everyone licking the boots of giant corporations, as he was quite successful in doing with Microsoft.

Europe will not eliminate cash because the EU has exclusive competency over the single euro and legal tender status and meaning. If you read any court docs like that of the Hessischer Rundfunk, it’s very clear that there is a hard line prohibition on any attempts to abolish euro cash banknotes.

The problem is that while the continued existence of cash is guaranteed, forced-banking is still happening in parallel. You might have a right to buy a burger using cash banknotes but you’re not free from banks if a tax payment via bank transfer is imposed. That’s the problem. We have the worse of both worlds.

Banks still have an incentive to earn your custom as there are (still) different banks so you get to choose,

It’s not good enough. It’s easy for 6 or so banks to “compete” against each other as they collectively screw people over in various ways. Cash from the central bank is a competitor that will /never/ force you to run a smartphone app, for example, or charge you a fee. Cash is the single most important competitor banks can have.