Justmoney and Visa recently announced the launch of their new project — the GoCashless Campaign — which will see the website’s editor, Andy Gilder, live for the next three months without using cash and sharing his real life experiences with the general public.

The campaign, which runs for exactly three months, will see Gilder using a debit card for every transaction he needs to make. If he is required to pay cash for a service or an item, he simply cannot have what he is after. That’s no cash. For anything. For three months.

With a partner in Visa, Justmoney has developed a home for the project, a website located at www.goCashless.co.za which will see Gilder blog, Tweet and upload videos and images about living a cash free life.

Aimed at educating, entertaining and interacting with the public, the initiative hopes to outline the nuances associated with living a cash free life and shedding more light on whether 'living plastic' could be a reality for South Africans.

"The beauty of the campaign," says Gilder, "is that we really don’t know what is going to happen. Users will see the pros and cons of living a cashless lifestyle through my eyes, in real time. Many people suspect that living life without cash might be a possibility, but by taking the leap and sharing our experience, we are committed to finding out whether one could genuinely live their normal lifestyle without ever needing to make use of cash. In many ways I’m taking one for the team!"

The website will document the experiences in a contemporary and interactive way, prompting users to 'challenge Andy' to cashless tasks, comment on editorial and even submit their own cashless experiences for other users of the site to engage with.

"The site is all about the journey and we want people to come along for the ride. We’ve got prizes on offer throughout the campaign, but ultimately we hope that the lure of the story and finding out the facts will be enough to get people coming back to the site," says Gilder.

Speaking on behalf of Visa, Charles Niehaus, General Manager for Visa Sub-Saharan Africa, says, "We hope to highlight the benefits of using card over cash and to simultaneously raise public awareness and dispel any myths that people may have about using electronic payment systems."

Gocashless.co.za just went live and all members of the public are invited to get involved with the project. As an incentive, users stand the chance of winning spot prizes for joining the site as official followers and those who submit content are further rewarded with even greater rewards.

www.justmoney.co.za

How to make more cash It's not easy to make extra money, but it can be done if you're creative. Here's how...

Can you go cashless? Follow this man as he uses plastic for every transaction he makes in the next three months...

Seven myths of investing Learn the truth behind these seven widely held, yet patently wrong investment myths...