That a Vodafone shop wouldn’t accept cash in payment and it pissed me off?

@aroundtheworldyet but many of the mobile payments -milkman, window cleaner etc rely on an mobile internet connection - and some rural areas dont get a signal.....

Where my mum lives the WiFi is almost non existant so online is difficult. Local family shops only take cash

Cashless is fine...Until there is a power outage or the banking system goes down then your stuffed.

It also makes life extremely hard for people on the fringes of society.
If you don’t have a permanent address you can’t get a bank account and you can’t get a permanent address without a bank account...

Having cash makes it easier to control spending. You need good discipline if you just use a card all the time. Too easy to overspend

Surely @vickibee it’s the opposite. If your rural all banking online. Never having to find a cash machine. Never running out of money

So what happens when the cash machines go down? It's not like that never happens is it?

I like using cash so would not use a shop that refuses to take it.

Makes life so much easier for people in cities but not in rural / remote areas

Anyone who only takes cash is a tax dodger

Cashless will be totally normal soon. It makes like SO much easier

My parents gave me £600 for Christmas to buy a new cooker and fridge (I'm moving house). It's a hassle to get to the bank so I will probably use the cash to pay.

ItsGoingTibiaK

Something ironic in that photo being of a shuttered store

I use cash a lot, especially when I am giving pocket money to ds. He once saved up his birthday money and took £100 cash into CEX to buy himself a second hand games console. He's had debit cards but loses them.

@bruffin what about 7/8 year olds?
Money on a card is nothing to them.
They just learn differently, life changes. Mime kids had a very different world to what I had in 60s and 70s growing up.

@MopsRUs

The ones I have seen do have clear signs.

Yeah, David Icke believes in lizard people, I'm not sure he has much to add to the debate. It's quite sad really, he used to be a well-respected sports commentator.

David Icke has been going on about it for years. Most people didn't listen,

Why would anyone listen, he's a fucking idiot.

yanbu
where I am (jn forrin) you can sometimes have shops next to each other - one only accepting cards the other only cash

it can be a problem fir children as the minimum age for a bank account/bank card here is 14...

"How will children learn about cash if we stop using it?" is a bit like saying "But how will children learn about bustles if nobody wears them?!" If we as a society don't use cash, they don't need to learn about it.

They'll learn how to manage money cashlessly.

@bruffin what about 7/8 year olds?
Money on a card is nothing to them.
Far far to easy to spend and contact less is horrendous. I loathe it.

I've seen buskers, drug dealers and car boot markets accept digital payments and I think there's been the same £20 note in my purse for 6 months because everywhere accepts digital. I don't see much of a difference between handing over a piece of paper or moving a bunch of numbers from 1 device to another.

Remember Visa going down? Natwest went down too, I think

Exactly! That's what I was referring to in my post. I now keep emergency cash with me just in case. When that happened I was stuck in the city centre miles from home. Luckily, I'm a student, and there is an arrangement with a local taxi firm that if you can't pay for a taxi you can leave your student card and then take the money in to the university the next day, so I booked a taxi. As it happened their systems weren't affected so I could pay via their app. But, it is something to bear in mind, using a card is great, but it's a good idea to remember that technology can and does go wrong sometimes.

Where I live, if you use the phone app (Ringo) for parking, the charge is 40p. When you're only paying 70p to park for half an hour, that's a lot extra.

@Instagrump

Yes it does make me very uncomfortable. When I left an abusive relationship I was advised to use cash and change all my passwords as people can follow you through your transactions and debts. I don't feel any more comfortable with the government doing it.

It's fine being cashless, until it doesn't work.
Remember Visa going down? Natwest went down too, I think.
Travelex has been unable to use its computers since Christmas.
Not in the UK, but the entire banking network in our home country went down for 3 days. No ATMs, no card sales. Everything had to be done in the cash you already had. How long would many of you manage like that??

I seem to get through loads of cash. Kids football - cash, kids sports - cash, school mufti days, cake sales, PTA stuff, Christmas fair all cash.
I regularly buy my mid week loaf of bread and pint of milk with a £20 just to get the change (and have been known to do it in 2 transactions, first breaking the £20, then breaking the £10 that was part of the change.)

What's the youngest a bank will give a card on a childs account? 12??? So my 10 yr old cant go to the shop for me???
Whilst cash is definitely on the decline, I'm not sure we will ever become totally cashless.

Not to be all tin foil hat brigade here but is no one concerned that with an entirely automated cash free system, every single thing we do will be recorded? Our entire lives potentially monitored? Our spending habits, what we buy, where we buy from and when we buy it? Our whereabouts can be tracked and traced if need be just from buying a can of Coke somewhere? Obviously no one gives a shit about little old me but there is a small part of me that gets a shiver down my spine thinking we humans are going to end up the plot of some dystopian movie style future. We're already constantly listened to by those dear ladies, Alexa, Siri and Cortana.

I blame her. And her tax-dodging builders. They are breaking the law and she's supporting them in that.

Me too. Bloody hate tax dodgers.

I like the fact that my plumber carries a card terminal around with him and I just pay with my card.