Times I have needed cash this fortnight

[marymarkle]

I know there are some on here who say they never ever use cash. I don't know how they manage. Like most people I use a mixture of bards and cash.
So in the fortnight the times I have had to use cash are as follows.

Buying the Big Issue. I assume those who never use cash never buy the Big Issue.
Paying for drinks at a cash bar at a wedding. Very posh venue, but cash bar only, no cards.
Getting the bus into town. I live in a City where the buses only take cash or a bought bus card. I hardly ever use the bus, so no point buying a bus pass, so I used cash. You can not use a card.
Went to a local vintage fair today. This is a small fair and the best stalls are always some people who do this as a hobby/to make a bit of extra money, and none of them take cards. I assume because of the cost of taking cards.
Paid a tip by cash in a restaurant. I always pay tips in cash so servers get the whole amount. Even the best places take an admin fee.

By refusing to use cash I would have negatively affected my life this fortnight and not supported someone who is homeless.

Yes, I imagine you live in a bigger city? I live in a small market town in Norfolk.

The Barclays bank in the town about 20 miles away from me closed last year, the Barclays in my town is closing in May. I will have to drive 20 miles to get to a Barclays.

After May there will only be one bank left in my town, a Lloyds, and I imagine that will be closing soon too. There used to be 7 banks or building societies a decade ago. The cash machines associated with the banks are going too so there are very few of them left.

I explained this upthread, but will say here again. I withdraw about £1000 at the beginning of the month and use over the month for shopping, paying my cleaner etc... and for savings in envelopes. This is an old fashioned way of budgeting but it works well for me. I probably go in a couple of times in the month in addition to that.

I know of quite a lot of self-employed casual workers round here are paid in cash. Life out here is different.

I will have to drive 20 miles to get to a Barclays.

You don't have to, you choose to. Withdrawing £1000 a month is a choice. This is an old fashioned way of budgeting but it works well for me but not if it involves ten quid's worth of petrol and a hour's driving. I get that you will say "but Barclay's changed, not me!" but the reality is that it doesn't matter: your way of budgeting isn't going to be a long-term proposition, so you would do better to figure out a way to do it differently.

I know of quite a lot of self-employed casual workers round here are paid in cash.

Well (a) they aren't having to draw the cash out, they're being given it and (b) the disappearance of bank branches may cause their employers to change their policies. But it doesn't alter your position, as you aren't paid in cash.

Cash is available everywhere, if you want it.

No it really isn't. You're working in a city, hence why you have bank branches close to you. In my village (6000 people live in it so it's not a remote hillside in the middle of nowhere). We have a single cash machine inside the single convenience store. If the store is closed or if it's out of order, we're beggared. The only other option is the village post office which doesn't have a cash machine but you can withdraw cash over the counter - not much use as it's only open office hours!

I was in our local chip shop only last week. A guy in front placed quite a big order (£30 plus) and then offered a card, only to be told by the counter assistant that their card reader was out of order. That guy had to cancel his order as he had no cash and knew the nearest cash machine was in the next town a few miles away. I presume he went to a different chip shop in that town rather than drive there and back to order again.

the disappearance of bank branches may cause their employers to change their policies.

Or they may be paying their staff/suppliers in cash because their nearest branch is so far away to go to bank it. You can't extrapolate your own opinions onto everyone else who is in different circumstances. I like it the way things are - most of us have choices - for those in cities, cards seem to work well, for others outside cities, perhaps a mix of cash/card is optimal.

So how has it got worse, Kazzy? Was it easier to draw cash out in small villages 10/20/30/40 years ago? I doubt that you had a bank branch with an external ATM at any point in somewhere that small.

I also find the endless "ah, the machine's bust" which besets the country side slightly hard to comprehend. I can count on the fingers of one hand the occasions I've encountered broken credit card machines, but apparently in the countryside they explode on a daily basis.

But let's take back my "cash is available anywhere" claim, and assume that cash is actually hard to come by. Surely that's an argument for more card use, not less?

Cheques can be paid in online

Not all - certainly not with Nationwide.

I was in our local chip shop only last week. A guy in front placed quite a big order (£30 plus) and then offered a card, only to be told by the counter assistant that their card reader was out of order

Was there no sign alerting customers before the order was assembled (wasting paid-for time) ?

Kazzy because my pound coins are all used for DS2's after school club?

Was it easier to draw cash out in small villages 10/20/30/40 years ago?

Err yes! There were more bank branches, more post offices, etc. Maybe not cash machines, but you'd just withdraw over the counter. But our village banks certainly had "hole in the wall" cash machines in the early 80s.

When the banks or post office was closed, you'd "cash a cheque" in the pub, newsagents, grocers, off-licence or other shops, or even your milkman, coal-man, or fish van would do it when they called if you were a regular customer - basically anywhere that was open would cash a cheque - it was pretty bog-standard.

But there was less need to "draw out" in those days as people were paid wages in cash, they'd withdraw their benefits/pensions weekly at the post office in cash, and likewise buy their stuff and pay their bills in cash.

It was certainly easier to get hold of cash back then when there were so many shops, pubs, banks, etc. That's exactly why there's so much fuss made when the "last" shop or bank or pub in a town or village proposes closure - it drastically reduces peoples' options. But someone living/working in a city won't understand that as they're surrounded by cash machines, open all hours shops, bank branches, etc.

Was there no sign alerting customers before the order was assembled (wasting paid-for time)?

You pay as soon as you go in before they start preparing the food and then wait, so a sign wouldn't have changed anything except maybe half a minute ringing the order through the till, so, pretty trivial.

You'd be surprised Kazzy. I live in London. Until recently, RBS wouldn't let me draw money out of anyone else's machines. All we have here is Sainsbury's bank unless I get on a bus. Life's so much easier now that RBS have changed the rules.

NatWest is part of RBS's group. I remember watching a programme about Sark. They have one bank. I said, in a voice filled with envy, "Even Sark has a fucking NatWest." 😂

You pay as soon as you go in before they start preparing the food

Ah, so no harm, no foul ....

If people in villages used the shops and pubs, they’d stay in business. One of our local villages had simultaneous petitions (a) complaining about the closure of the local post office and (b) complaining about a proposal to build some new houses and a school which would “ruin a quiet village”. They want quiet? They’ve got it: no shops and pubs to disturb them now.

Are the new houses going to be pubs and shops?

Are the new houses going to be pubs and shops?

No. But they would have contained customers for the (now closed) pubs and shops.

*I will have to drive 20 miles to get to a Barclays.

You don't have to, you choose to. Withdrawing £1000 a month is a choice. This is an old fashioned way of budgeting but it works well for me but not if it involves ten quid's worth of petrol and a hour's driving. I get that you will say "but Barclay's changed, not me!" but the reality is that it doesn't matter: your way of budgeting isn't going to be a long-term proposition, so you would do better to figure out a way to do it differently.*

Indeed, you are making my point for me. This is my choice. And now that choice is being taken away. Of course I will change and of course I won't drive 20 miles to bank how I want. But I am fairly young and affluent. There are lots of people around here who don't have computers to do online banking and who won't be able to go 20 miles to access cash.

We are a small market town but we have a railway line to London and have recently had several hundred new houses built here, so I am not sure if your points above stack up either.

There are lots of people around here who don't have computers to do online banking

In large part, that's their choice. There are banking apps on all major smartphone platforms. Phone banking still exists, so they can do it with a voice call. Sure, there will be edge cases of people who don't have a computer, don't have a phone, and yet need to operate a bank account, and we should have mechanisms for them. But they are vanishingly rare. And there's no particular reason why they would be concentrated in rural areas, either.

No. But they would have contained customers for the (now closed) pubs and shops.

Doubtful - if the existing residents didn't use them, unlikely that new residents would either.

My smart phone has no RAM (J3)... I can't actually put barely any apps on there, much less a payment one that no one has ever asked me for. Recent times that cash (maybe only cash) made sense:

Saturday: I ran a charity sale (only 2 buyers, only accept cash)

Monday 80p for 2 bread rolls in cafe.

Tues: Rail fare (often can't get phone signal & their machines need phone signal to take card payment)

I usually have about £50 in my purse because using cards and cash machines costs money where we live, despite it being an inner suburb of a city, so I take money out when I am near a free cash point.

All five of the corner shops in walking distance of our house have a minimum spend to use your card, so you can't use it to just buy milk. They all also charge a fee to use their cash machines. The only free to use cash machine is in the Post Office / Chemist which closes at 5pm and isn't open at all at the weekend.

In the past 2 weeks, I have needed cash for:

• Milk from the corner shop x 2;
• Bus fare because I was travelling on a bus run by a different company than the one I usually use and have a card for, and the only options were a physical prepaid card or cash;
• Work collection for two colleagues' leaving presents;
• Work milk and cake kitty;
• DD's pocket money;
• DD's tuck shop;
• DD's charity collection;
• Parking, twice

I have also used cash for things that I could have used a card for:

• Meal out with colleagues;
• A coffee

The problem with small traders ie hairdressers not having card machines is because of the fees, only a small % i know,but the service user doesn't want to pay the extra, so the small trader has to foot the bill, why should they?

Madbengalmum

It’s not free to process cash though.

Riddley, bank accounts cost money, but if most were asked to pay a monthly fee they wouldn't be happy, we are talking about very small business here, not people paying in £0000's. And I am pretty sure if customers were asked to pay extra to use a card they wouldn't want to do it.

Online banking is not possible for a lot of older people. My mum was an early adopter of computers and online banking. But she now has arthritis and struggles using a keyboard. So she now goes to a branch. She wont do phone banking as so many of the banks phone banking is awful. I have been trying to persuade her to move to First Direct.

I live in a place with about 5 different bank branches 5 minutes away. They are full of people. There is always a staff member walking down the queue seeing if there is anyone who can be helped to use the machines to take out or deposit cash or cheques. There rarely seems to be. Most are doing transactions that needs a staff members input.