This drop is due in large part to the fact that debit card usage more than doubled over the period. Hence, there is little doubt that the average cost of an electronic purse payment will fall in the years to come - although it is difficult to predict just to what level. It also has to be underlined that especially in the early years a large part of the electronic purse acceptance points in the Netherlands were in fact converted POS terminals. Since merchants who already accept debit cards are not part of the real target population of electronic purses, this may have negatively affected the HBD cost estimates. That is, the explicit prices charged to consumers and merchants for using currency, if any, do not cover the full cost.
All available estimates indicate that the social cost of cash is very substantial.
Given this, many economists seem to agree that considerable social savings could be reaped by encouraging the use of more efficient electronic payment systems and by discouraging the use of cash. Correct prices that is, prices which reflect the real costs and which reflect the difference in costs between various payment services could be an important instrument in changing payment behaviour. As to the best pricing method, Humphrey et al. A delicate question is how the charges should be split up between merchants and consumers. Obviously it is not easy to determine objectively whether the Dutch merchants, for example, are paying their part where cash is concerned.