Forget Cash — Homeles Man Uses Square Reader

The move toward cashless payments has led to one thing: consumers who tend to carry cash less.

But the unintended consequence of this? Not having cash, for example, when a homeless person asks for someone to spare a little extra money.

But that hasn’t stopped one homeless man from finding a solution during this major push to a cashless society: accepting credit cards.

As featured in a Mashable article, that’s the life of Abe Hagenston, who lives in Detroit. This particular man says he hasn’t been able to take a job, so he resorted to asking for money on the street. He started off his plan asking for cash but quickly realized there was a better way to handle things: offering people the chance to pay him with credit, too.

But don’t judge him just yet. This man said he’s willing to do work and often picks up one-off jobs for cash (or, in this case, credit).

So, what does he accept? Well, using his Square card reader and his smartphone, this man takes payments from the three big card networks. And this has also given him one claim to fame that he likes to brag about.

“I take Visa, MasterCard, American Express,” Hagenston said. “I’m the only homeless guy in America who can take a credit card.”