Will Slow E-payments Flatten Out In Cautious Markets?

One thing I recollect from the Great Depression (through the eyes of my grandfather) is that cash was king. Fortunately he taught me how to catch and skin a rabbit, which apparently may become a useful skill again.

Will we see a trend to return to cash? 'Glitches' in electronic transaction systems may not inspire confidence in a nervous market.

I have no doubt that electronic payments will prevail in the medium to long term, because they'll have lower costs and faster clearance and a high level of trust, but in the short term there could even be a decline.

I expect that institutions with faster payments and clearance will be favoured over slow payments.

Paypal, with it's clearance time stretching into weeks, will quickly go out of favour. Perhaps thats why they bought Bill-Me-Later, that and the less than stellar performance of Paypal's own buy now Find-Out-You've-Been-Ripped-Off-Later* service or buy now on credit FOYBROL service which has been in operation for years. Are they buying trust? They're certainly buying better risk management.

It'll all come down to trust, and if their is none, then it'll be 'pay before you play'. The faster you pay the quicker you get to play.

Perhaps those faster payments will prove a good investment sooner than expected.

*Opinions based on either personal experience or anecdotal evidence.