Swiping your card to pay is nothing like taking cash out of your wallet, and cashless payments are changing consumer behaviour, writes Tom Sandage for The Economist sister magazine 1843. The phenomenon has been observed since credit cards appeared in the 1980s. People tend to spend 12-18% more with credit cards, according to a study by Dun & Bradstreet. Transactions are felt even less with phones which we are always carrying: “It’s like a magic wand you can just wave to pay for stuff.” Economists expect this system of payments to boost spending even more. “Removing constraints on making payments subtly changes our consumption patterns, and the extra calories from all those vanilla lattes add up,” writes Sandage. Technology, as usual, can help. Apps could observe pattern changes by providing weekly summaries and analyses of our expenses, and notify us whenever there is a sharp rise. Fintech opportunity, anyone?

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