Use ez-link technology to go cashless

To go cashless, it seems that one would need a smartphone with QR code scanning capabilities and a data plan to connect to the Internet on the go (Can Singapore catch up in race to go cashless?; Aug 24).

Are we assuming that everyone has a smartphone with a data plan?

We already worry that our young children are spending too much time in front of a screen. Would we want them to carry a smartphone with them?

How about retirees who are not technologically inclined and do not have a smartphone or do not know how to use one?

Then there are the tourists. I know of people who rely on their hotel's free Wi-Fi when they are here rather than buy a local data plan.

The cheapest mobile plan available still costs a few hundred dollars a year. Can everyone afford this, especially young children and retirees?

A better option would be to utilise our ez-link cards. The technology is not new and practically everyone has one.

The cards have been used to pay fees and fines in places like the National Library for a number of years, with no need for a smartphone or data plan.

It is more practical to expand existing technology than to implement new ones that come at a cost to many individuals.

Let us not force people to spend money they may not be able to afford, just so they can have a gadget to buy food.

Alex Yeo Eng Buan

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 28, 2017, with the headline Use ez-link technology to go cashless. Subscribe