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9 . As COVID-19 continues to influence consumer behavior, the use of non-plastic payment methods is rising. But does this spell the end of the plastic credit card era?
Since the first Diners Club credit card was unveiled in 1950, much has changed. Recent technological developments and in-store consumer preferences could suggest times are changing. For some years now, various founders of financial institutions, as well as industry experts, have foreseen plastic credit cards or any other means of physical payment methods including cash will not be around much longer. They based their predictions on the light-speed growth of digital payment.
At the beginning of the global pandemic (大流行病), governments took measures to protect their citizens, leading to lockdowns of varying degrees. The fear of contracting the virus through high-traffic ATMs and the refusal of merchants to accept cash can only be seen as a great addition to an already declared war on cash. Meanwhile, the urgency to spend a minimum time period in stores in order to avoid interactions led consumers towards digital solutions.
Furthermore, options like QR codes (二维码), NFC, and PINs have been around for a while but a true market breakthrough seems to only have happened since the beginning of the pandemic. According to Worldpay, without these telecommunication innovations, the shift in people’s payment behavior is out of the question. 86% of contactless adapters built into smart devices have seen themselves proceed with contactless payment. This trend will help to wipe out cash and plastic credit cards.
From a different perspective, countries like France, Italy, and Germany had almost 150 million smartphone users in 2019 alone. And it’s been reported that 80% of the transactions (交易) will be done via Internet-backed devices by 2025. And this figure will keep rising as more and more cheap smartphones are pouring into the global market. It is expected that e-wallets are going to be the most preferred payment method by then.
So, will there be a comeback for our beloved plastic spending power? I would put away my cash and plastic cards, switch on my phone instead of inserting cards, and present QR codes at a self-checkout instead of queuing behind a mass of people. I believe that many people think the same way.
1. What are the predictions in the financial circle about?
| A．The Diners Club credit card will make a comeback. |
| B．Consumers’ preferences will be varied around the world. |
| C．The era of traditional payment will come to an end soon. |
| D．New technologies will cause the decline of physical stores. |
2. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?
| A．The worldwide efforts to fight against the pandemic. |
| B．The economic slowdown caused by the pandemic. |
| C．The impact of the health crisis on ways of payment. |
| D．The public’s tendency to shop online during lockdowns. |
3. What set the stage for the trend in payment methods according to Worldpay?
| A．The fast update rate of smart devices. |
| B．The existing digital payment technologies. |
| C．Many physical stores’ excellent online service. |
| D．The acceptance of digital payment among customers. |
4. What can be inferred from Paragraph 5?
| A．E-wallets will achieve increasing global popularity. |
| B．Smartphones will become cheaper and cheaper in the future. |
| C．Developed countries have high rates of Internet popularization. |
| D．The number of global smartphone users will rise by 80% by 2025. |
5. What’s the author’s attitude towards the comeback of plastic credit cards?
| A．Negative. | B．Favorable. | C．Unclear. | D．Hopeful. |
