Tacos on Credit as Mexico Street Vendors Use Apps Patricia Laya - Bloomberg News
go to original March 12, 2015

Sr. Pago Brings Banking to Mexico's 'Unbanked' (Pablo Gonzalez Vargas)

In Mexico city, known for its sprawling street markets, consumers are shunning cash and opting for credit cards they swipe on merchants’ smartphones to pay for everything from shoes to tacos.

“People will always ask, ‘do you take cards?’, and if you do, they’ll go ‘I want this, I want that,’” said Jorge Preciado, who promotes and recruits vendors to sell their wares in markets across Mexico, such as Bazar Condesa. “Cash will always circulate, but paying with a card is going to become the norm,” he said in a phone interview.

About 29 million people, or more than half of Mexico’s workforce, operate in a gray economy that’s neither taxed or regulated. New mobile-based payment methods like one offered by startup Sr. Pago lets merchants conduct business without having a bank account and redeem the cash earned at one of more than 12,800 Oxxo convenience stores. Sr. Pago, available as an app on Nextel smartphones, and falling mobile-service prices are allowing more Mexicans bypass banks.

Read the rest at The Globe and Mail

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