Tolls that have to be paid online

[Fianceechickie]

We live nearish the new Mersey bridge in Runcorn. You can't pay there and then, there are no booths and you have to remember to go online and pay when to get home. Is it me, or is that a neat way of money grabbing? Cheap for the operator who doesn't have to put in toll booths and people are bound to forget, being tired, busy, other things to do and they can just fine you then. DH been fined twice in the last few months having forgotten to pay the £2 when he gets home on evenings he's used it. On one occasion he paid for one trip that same day but forgot he'd driven across it again. You can set up an account but there's a £10 fee and £20 minimum top up. I've seen this on roads in Ireland too. I've not used it because I just know i would forget to pay!

Must be a regional thing then. Though I've lived in several cities/towns, all up north though. Maybe down south is different, if that's where you are?

You still can't give me figures of number of 11 and 12 year olds with contactless cards.

It doesn't matter. 12 year olds being unable to travel on London buses because they don't have appropriate cards isn't a thing. I see lots of young children with contactless cards, you don't: we obviously move in different places. I had 12 year olds pre-contactless, but they had contactless cards the moment they were available, and they had multiple bank accounts from about 12. Prior to contactless they had Chip and PIN cards; the principle is the same.

We can meet up in ten years time. I'll buy you a pint of real ale, in fact several, for cash, if cash and cheque transactions have stabilised or risen. You can buy me a small cappuccino, with a contactless payment card, if volumes of cash transactions and cheque transactions have fallen. You can pick if the volume is by transaction count or by value. It's possible that cash and cheques might see a hipster rise, like vinyl records and Levis 501s; who knows? But I'm liking the odds I'm offering.

It's a disgrace and a cash grab........

I am not disagreeing that cash will be used less, I am disagreeing that we can move to a cashless society. We will continue with dual systems.

It's a shame really that barter died out ...

(Actually it is a real shame, as the move to currency means you have to have money - in some form - to exist).

Bartering still exists in rural communities, but keep taking the piss.

Bartering still exists in rural communities, but keep taking the piss.

Oh dear, comprehension fail ?
I actually said it's a shame we don't barter anymore, and I was serious.

Believe me, you'd know if I was taking the piss.

I am not disagreeing that cash will be used less, I am disagreeing that we can move to a cashless society.

I'll buy you a meal, for cash, if I can't go for a month without using cash. I already go for several weeks without using cash, but am stopped by some of the small traders at the farmer's market. But more and more of them are taking cards, and I'm getting close to the point where I simply won't bother going to the stalls who make it difficult for me to pay them, and if there were a meal at stake, I'd just buy different meat.

Going further, I believe I would probably be able to leave the house carrying only my phone, today, and, aside from the issue of keeping it charged, function for a month without any other form of payment or ID apart from my work pass. I'd need a driving licence in order to fly internally or drive, a passport to fly internationally, and I'd want to check my offer of a meal if I needed to go abroad and couldn't choose where I went (Apple Pay works fine in many places, but isn't anything like universal).

Outside payment, I'd need my driver's license or passport to fly, and it would be wise to have it when driving, and I'd need a debit card if I wanted to collect advance purchase train tickets (although increasingly I can buy them straight to my phone, so I'd be able to make most journeys, albeit perhaps with slightly more restrictive tickets, using just the phone). Otherwise, I think can do everything with the contactless cards loaded on to my phone.

I'd certainly be willing to live for a month using only a phone, my passport and one debit card now if someone would . I can't think of anything I do which would be more than a

Notevilstepmother
Thanks for the link. I'll have some reading to do.
Another question.
I have used the buses in and around Barcelona where you can go into a shop and buy a ticket for 10 trips, and then put it through the machine on the bus, when it was me, Mum and Dd I stuck in through three times, so three trips would be deleted from it. Is the oyster card used the same way? Can I get one with 10 trips on and use it for both me and Dd or do we need two cards?

I am not disagreeing that it is possible. I am saying that many people will still use cash. And I go to stalls at the farmers market that only take cash.

My experience is the same as crunchymint's. Lots of cash use around here. Still a few places that won't take credit cards, though they're getting fewer. Buses are making contactless payment available soon, I think I read somewhere. Railway station is pushing people to use the machines for tickets, but many people use cash, partly because the belief is that the machine takes the wrong amount from a card (on the other hand I use card because the machines can't digest notes in anything other than pristine condition). Pay for parking machine at local hospital - when one of the two machines stopped taking cash, there were long queues at the machine that would still take cash, hardly anyone using their card in the other.

Contactless for kids I can see the benefit, since the tendency is to pay for everything in pound coins and leave the coppers around their room, or take them to the cash machine at the supermarket which charges 10% to convert small change into larger denominations.

I am going out tonight to a family event. Lots of stalls like stuff selling toys, performers, burger vans. You would be stupid to go to that without cash. The meal beforehand though in a restaurant we can pay for by card.

Oh, and just as a handy tip for those that want to check their contactless receipts: if you use your phone as a contactless card, which now works pretty much universally, you get a record of each transaction which you can check against your statement and they have times and places (ie, town name) as well as dates and you get the company name that will be on your statement and you have to unlock the phone with a fingerprint or similar and the contactless payment is only energised when you ask for it. So for the "I check my statements so can't use contactless" people: Apple/Android Pay solves almost all your problems There is an edge case of a small number of merchants who accept contactless only with a card, not with a phone, but that's a rapidly diminishing number of people bleeding edge enough to have got early contactless terminals but not bleeding edge enough to want to take Apple Pay.

Lots of stalls like stuff selling toys, performers, burger vans.

You'd be surprised how many take cards. They want to spend the summer doing festivals, in many cases, and festivals are card-city: cash is hard to come by.

My point was not that you don't get receipts, but that you end up with too many to check. You ridiculed the idea of anyone checking transactions on their bank statement.

I can imagine the kind of vans that go to festivals take cards. And maybe some do. Although these are more the kind of vans that go to local events for families, rather than trendy festivals. But I will check if I have the time. But those standing on street corners selling things your kids nag for don't take cards. You know the light up wands and the like. And street performers take cash donations, that is all. They don't carry card machines as they perform on the street.

If you like paying by card or phone why does it matter if other people prefer cash or cheques?