Not using cashpoints or online banking- normal?

[SeekingClosure]

I just want to get some idea of how usual this is.

Dm will not use cash machines or sign up to online banking because she thinks she will be a victim of bank fraud. I think this is rather paranoid as long as sensible precautions are taken with passwords, checking there isn't anything around the cash machine slot etc. Ironically Dm ridicules another relative who won't buy anything online because she might get "robbed".

Dm is only 63, and it concerns me how she seems old before her time in some ways. She refused to use chip and pin for ages and insists her bank issue her a card that is not contactless.

I do online banking but only in my own laptop, not out on the street with my phone. I also use an Oyster card for the Tube rather than getting my credit card out each time, in case I drop it.

I'm in my 50s.

My sister is the same - she’s 42. I wanted to pay her for something and she wouldn’t give me her bank details so I could transfer the money. I had to post her a cheque.

She’s also not keen on shopping online either, she’ll ask me to buy it for her and then come round with the cash. She is quite a Luddite in many ways. She’s much worse than my parents tbh.

Although I’m not keen on contactless, I’ve heard too many stories of people having moneystolen to put me off. I know your get your money back, but what a faff. I’ve refused to have one so far.

She’s also not keen on shopping online either, she’ll ask me to buy it for her and then come round with the cash.

This annoys me.
'Everyone is trying to steal my money... But they can steal yours'

After a cashpoint outside a bank gave me the wrong amount TWICE ( not the same day and not the same bank) I won't use ATM either - I go in and withdraw cash over the counter. I do use online banking though

My mum still draws cash from the counter. She takes what is left at the end of the month and stores in in the house, she must have a secret stash of 1000s. I worry that she may get robbed but she thinks this is better than a bank. Mid 80s. She is quite generous and bought me six lovely pandora charms recently. She says she doesn’t know what to spend it all on. Wish I had that problem ....

I now live in a time warp pocket of elderly widows who don't 'do' that new fangled internet thing or use credit/debit cards. No, they go to the bank, get a month's cash put in an envelope, then trawl down the high street calling into gas/electricity places etc. paying a bit here, a bit there. They call it "paying their bills".Easy pickings for a mugger, i would think, but it's what they've always done and they ain't gonna change now.

MIL is 65 and won't use online banking because she's certain that she will have her account hacked. She will use the cash point though. She is very set in her ways and acts older than she is in a lot of ways.

My mother walks around with circa £600 on her at any one time. Then she puts her train ticket in her purse so she’s standing at the gates of station with purse open and a wad of cash in full view of everyone walking past! She won’t use the internet and l He’s to proudly proclaims ‘I wouldn’t know how to turn one of the damn things on!’ We’ve offered to show her several times but she’s 65 and she says her memory is like a sieve and she’ll never learn.

GlitteryFrog - tell me about it. I’ve given up tying to reason with her.

She's not protected by staying "out" of internet banking and can get into trouble anyway. It's far better to keep up to date on current technologies. She should get a RFID wallet if she's worried over her contactless cards. I would also use an Oyster card had I needed to travel on the tube, don't like the idea of waving a credit card in the open.

My parents both refuse to use cash points, bank cards, credit cards, online banking, direct debits and to add to the fun neither will send or read text messages. They don't understand that people really don't carry wads of cash around with them anymore . It's very frustrating at times dealing with them.

I’m retired and use online banking, apps and pay for stuff with my phone or Apple Watch. I rarely have cash and only ever get out a small amount for ‘just in case’.

It's not unusual for older folk where I live
Rural set in there ways types

These replies are very interesting thank you. It seems she is quite unusual for her age to be so stuck in her ways. As a pp said it's like such things are beneath her, and are passing fads for silly people. It's up to her what she does of course but I think it's a shame as her life would be easier if she embraced new technologies.

SparkyBlue she wouldn't have a mobile phone until about five years ago, she stubbornly resisted it for ages even though it would be useful. She has one now (very basic, no internet) but when she gets home after work she puts it away in a cupboard and won't return any messages until the next day

My mum doesn't either. However

-3 years ago I was at a cash point machine, it retained my card at same time a random guy put his hand over mine and said 'keypad's not working'.

Obviously I immediately guessed it was a fraud but I was alone so what could I do? & I'd used a cashpoint on a busy main road in London.

I phoned bank and they said 'dont worry, the machine's retained your card they won't be able to use your card's. Yeah...as if. Thieves had drawn £200 + filled up with £50 petrol likely whilst I was still speaking to the bank.

Police came round and took a report, told me this crime is very common. Despite CCTV near cashpoint they didn't take it any further. They don't have the resources.

Twice, somebody has been able to set up a direct debit on my business account which isn't even in my name FFS its a company name. They can do this without my consent, signature and ID, when I couldn't even walk in a shop and get a phone contract without providing that.

I have the name of the company who set up the direct debit, as bank contacted me re bank charges for trying to withdraw a huge sum when I'd insufficient funds. Surprise surprise, when I looked up company online, no trace of them. & due to Data Protection, bank can't give ME details of who fraudulently set up the direct debit.

A lot of fraud is via internal systems. & they'll get away with it. Never mind sensible precautions...

If anyone wants to stay away from 'the machine' as much as possible I don't blame them.

Of course our details are everywhere so what can we do, but still online banking really isn't all it's cracked up to be

If your DM doesn't want to use it then leave best leave her alone on that one OP. Smart lady.

My parents are in their eighties and very much like this. In fact, they have no computers, no broadband or any form of internet access. The share one old brick of a mobile phone but keep it in the car and hardly ever turn it on.

I think it is a bit sad because as their mobility is declining they could benefit so much from online grocery shopping and home delivery, but they will never change.

I do most things online and use cash machines. I only go into the bank about twice a year, when my parents have sent cheques for birthdays or Christmas.

I'm somewhat on the fence about contactless cards. On the one hand they can sometimes be convenient, but I still worry a little that the level of security around them is not yet good enough.

I don't use online banking. I don't have contactless either since losing my card on Xmas eve last year and someone taking over £180 from my account, when I only had £240 for the whole of the next two weeks. Took me ages to get it back.

Tell her I was defrauded twice for a large amount of money recently in an old fashioned ‘cheque washing’ fraud. Cheque books, you can’t trust them.

And also, if I make purchases in unusual places, using contactless, I get asked for my pin after a few times, or my card gets stopped until I have rung the bank (new technology makes it easier to spot fraud).

She really shouldn’t keep large amounts of cash on her or at home.

I'm only early 30s and don't have online banking! I've never needed it?

Online banking means I can check my account every couple of days & see exactly what's going on, which as far as I'm concerned is massively useful.

The only times I've had fraud problems have been from forged cheques. And I've learned never to use those deposit boxes in banks where you put cash & a deposit form in an envelope & post them in. Once my cheque got deposited into someone else's account, and another time the lock on the box apparently jammed or something and they couldn't get anything out of it for three days...!!!

if I make purchases in unusual places, using contactless, I get asked for my pin after a few times, or my card gets stopped until I have rung the bank (new technology makes it easier to spot fraud).

Your contactless will have a limit on the number of contactless transactions which it can complete before you have to enter the PIN (10 or so)

I don't have a contactless card, but do use online banking. I always have cash as some places where I live are cash only.

I know family like this. It's their choice.

I like a simple life and often don't adapt new technology or don't bother replacing things I feeling as happy without.

Why doesn't she get an Amex and pay it off each month? When someone tried to defraud us (£10 in McDonald's followed by £300 online) Amex refused us everything we said was fraud even when it was used BEFORE we reported. They're very good.

My dp Is 49 and won’t do online banking....my nickname for him is old codger.

"FIL switches his broadband router off at night because he thinks people will sit outside his house and steal all his internet."

Well there is piggybacking - which I've been a victim of even WITH a random password.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggybacking_(Internet_access)

"he thinks as in actually steal his internet so he won't have any anymore (like a physical object)." Again - he's not entirely wrong - the small print in many Isp contracts show that "unltd usage" usually means a "fair usage" amount. If someone piggybacks onto his account and downloads eg a load of films for pirating purposes he could end up with a huge bill!

There's 2 ATM's in my locality that are regularly and frequently hit by scammers. Police regularly asking people who used them on X dates to check their transactions. Must be related to the design of them makes them easy targets of hackers (both same bank) WHY the bank doesn't use a less hackable design I don't know! I and many others have simply stopped using those ATM's but for those belonging to that bank there are certain functions that can only be done using their own banks atm, they're fed up of it!

Vicki - after he passed we discovered my granpa had been hiding £50's in old vcr cases! It was sheer luck someone opened one before they were thrown out! Cos who watches videos now?! Well over £5000!

"And I've learned never to use those deposit boxes in banks where you put cash & a deposit form in an envelope & post them in. " me too! I had a large check (tax rebate) to deposit, long queue in bank. Bank staff person persuaded me to use one, showed me how to use it (supposedly) it disappeared! Supposedly! Except it was cashed - but the amount never appeared in my account. Long story short police involved, cctv showed me putting the cheque in, further investigations showed the staff member who was supposedly trustworthy who'd been showing me what to do, had also been the person to empty it, had stolen the cheque and basically paid it into her own account!!! Took nearly a year but got my money back.