Yahoo Finance’s Ethan Wolff-Mann joins the On The Move panel to discuss the concern about being infected with the coronavirus and whether or not money can be washed and if it's an issue for passing coronavirus.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: One of the other challenges that we've heard about is keeping things clean that come in and out of your home. There have been reports that some merchants are asking folks in person to pay with credit cards, because they're seen as easier to clean. What do you do if you want to use actual cash? Ethan Wolff-Mann, Yahoo Finance reporter, is joining us now to talk more about that.

So I mean, this- this would seem like a silly question in normal times, but of course we're not in normal times. Can you wash money?

ETHAN WOLFF-MANN: Well, so I think we've all seen on, you know, various movies and TV shows people putting money into a washing machine, and then drying it, and then ironing it, and things like that. Apparently that does-- it does sort of work visually, but it ruins the money and the security features. So that money actually cannot be used anymore. A bank will take that out of circulation.

There's not-- the short answer is there is not a good way to wash cash, which is actually a big problem. Coins are much worse, because the coronavirus or any viruses and germs stay on metal and plastic much more easily than paper or cotton in the case of US currency. But I called around some banks to see what exactly they're doing. And it's really not that much.

You know, China has done some UV radiation and quarantining of cash. There hasn't been very much of that. There is just sort of glove usage and standard personal protection. And as well, though, I got to talk to one teller who said that he recommended if you think that you might have contaminated cash, you can still deposit it through an ATM. And you shouldn't actually be worried about other people doing that and getting that money back, because that money goes into a separate part of the machine and spits out fresh, clean money that has been sitting for- for a longer time.

So you know, hopefully would have any virus that could be on there would be dead. But there's not really a great advice to anybody except try to use credit cards when you can or Apple Pay or contactless pay. You see a lot of stores with-- having Venmo options and things like that. But anything to kind of maintain the social distancing.

I mean, yesterday I washed my credit card in the sink, you know? But yeah, this is kind of a new-- there's a lot of guidelines for contaminated cash. The Federal Reserve has a pretty funny page of what to do with bloody money, and you kind of get-- or money that's been inside an animal. I mean, there's all these things. And you really wonder what kind of stories have they seen? But there's nothing really that has to do with viruses or colds.

- Ethan, two things real quick. One, this is a great time to start using contactless payments like Google Pay or Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, whatever you want to use, Whatsapp, Venmo, et cetera. Other thing is, though, how long does this live on cash? Like when can I use paper money again, not that I use it very often. But when can I start using it again and feel safe?

ETHAN WOLFF-MANN: You know, this is a really, really good question. And you've seen some guidance from the CDC talking about how long can viruses stay on, you know, paper, money surfaces. Probably only three days, however quarantined money from China, they decided to wait I think it was 14 to-- or 7 to 10 days. Probably if you just don't touch your stuff-- and people are advising for packages, you know, wait a day and that should be fine, 24 hours.

But I mean the long answer is we really don't know. But it seems like coins are something to really be worried about. Like I would not take coin change from anybody. I might take cash change, but no coins. But I mean, really, if you touch money that may be contaminated, it's OK. Don't panic. You can wash your hands, just do not touch your face.

JULIE HYMAN: Ethan Wolff-Mann with some serious news you can use. Thank you very much, appreciate it. We'll be right back.