To wonder why so many people don't carry any cash on them?

[InHibernationTilISummer]

Excluding people who are skint and the Queen, obviously.

I've had so many examples of this in the last few weeks:

• Colleague who came into the work in the bad weather. Lots of delays and problems on the bus route they normally get so wanted to get the train instead but had no money for a ticket because they had come in with their season bus pass and lunch and hadn't expected to be spending any money.
• Friend turning up for exercise class but hasn't realised that the price has gone up 50p since she last came - and she only brought the exact money she thought she would need.
• Another friend dropping older child off at sport class finds that there's a fair going on at the sports centre with stalls and activities that her younger child (who was with her) would have enjoyed. Complains that she wishes she had known about it in advance as she would have taken some money out with her.

Is this becoming more common or is it just the people I know? If you aren't skint but don't routinely carry money on you, why is that?

I've been in situations where I haven't expected to be spending any (or much) money and some problem has occurred or plans have changed for some reason (e.g. having to accompany someone to A & E or the last bus not turning up) and I would have been really stuck if I hadn't taken some spare 'emergency' cash.

I always make sure I have a tenner on me. If you don't carry cash then you never have to buy pta raffle tickets!

School aged children - parent pay. Plus when they nag you for cash you can honestly tells the dc’s you have no money

Cab money - cabs can be paid for with contactless. They can also be ordered and paid for online.

Farmers market - the ones here have card facilities

Pint in your local - not a problem with contactless/card both here and up North.

Work collection - yearly thing. So much easier for everyone.

Cost to company - many have a minimum charge for this reason.

Craft markets, traditional markets etc - I will take a bit of cash out.

In store it also saves time not having to go through wallet for store card and cash. Quick tap and done.

When I was working and trying not to spend too much, I would sometimes come out with just my work pass, season train ticket and lunch, so that I couldn’t buy anything.

Now I rarely carry cash because I’m disorganised and forget to take it out! I always tap my card when I buy things too and have been known to completely forget my PIN number as a result. I should take out a set amount every Monday really. But I rarely need cash. Even car parking can be done by phone where I live.

Farmers market is the only time I use cash. That and buying the big issue.

I never carry cash. I get caught out occasionally - but clearly so occasionally, that it's not enough to prompt me to carry cash.

Even school fairs and farmers markets have card machines here.

And I'm in the South Pacific, so don't really need to worry about needing to pay by cash in Europe.

I feel sorry for the homeless and buskers these days.

My nan always told me to carry enough cash to get a taxi out of any situation.

But it's no use doing that, if you're only going to spend it on other stuff - you always need to not spend it, so that you have it ready to spend on the emergency taxi! So it doesn't really count.

I carry very little. We need lots of change for school, so I will withdraw £20 now and again to get change from a small purchase, I will ask for it in pound coins if the shop can manage it. I will then keep a few in my purse and put the rest in a money box for paying for school dinners etc (our school is very antiquated and insists on correct money each day for school dinners - no cashless system, no cheques, must be paid daily )

Otherwise, I only withdraw cash if I need it for a specific purpose, never just 'to have'.

It may be "acceptable" to you - not to me, those businesses are charged for those transactions - if on one of the mainstream banks systems it will probably be 50p - they all have a minimum charge.

I doubt a shop is incurring 50p charges to sell 40p cookies. I'd think the charge would be 2p, based on the google results I reported earlier in the thread. The shop doesn't have to use the most expensive fees available.

(Just looked up izettle rates after writing that, and I think they would charge 1p for this transaction.)

LoniceraJaponica I don’t live anywhere near London (or even any city), yet still never need to use cash. It is perfectly acceptable to pay via card for one drink in our local, just as I regularly pay by card for the 40p cookie I buy at our local bakery.

Careful, you'll have the likes of lonicerajaponica needing the smelling salts for using your card for shock horror, a smaller amount than some arbitrary minimum transaction cost

If it costs businesses too much to be feasible to take card for that amount they won't do it. It's not difficult.

Most shops are banned from banks now from imposing minimum transactions. So yes they can lose money on small purchases. But if they refuse them, many banks will not process any card payments from them. So they have no choice. A cashless society benefits big business. They are the winners.

Sweden has been moving to a cashless society. There are massive concerns being raised there on how that affects poor, elderly and disabled people.

And I find it far easier to budget with cash. Small cardless payments are easily forgotten. If you take out the cash you can spend for that week, you can't go over your budget.

IMHO some people do this semi-deliberately knowing they can always ask someone to sub them a quid or two, say they'll 'settle up later' and then conveniently 'forget', secure in the knowledge that as it's such a small amount, the lender won't ask for it back for fear of seeming petty. Or maybe that's just one particular friend of mine.

If it costs businesses too much to be feasible to take card for that amount they won't do it. It's not difficult

I'm not sure that's true. The retailer, especially a small shop, is over a barrel somewhat. They might feel they have to accept cards or lose out even more to big businesses. And they might hope that not too many customers make small purchases on cards. Which if they do, they will probably just have to put up with dwindling profits until they decide it's not worth it any more.

Agree that it is big business that disproportionately benefits from things like card payments. Large retailers because they can afford to negotiate better rates with banks, and banks and other middle men like Uber, Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, and all the other processing companies, who make their money by taking a cut from billions of transactions.

In January this year shops were actually banned legally from asking for minimum transactions. So yes some do lose money, and have no choice about it. It is not big retailers that suffer, but small independent shops. We have an unusual number of small independent shops where I live and I want them to survive.

www.plymouthherald.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/ban-shops-charging-use-cards-1047985

Also in most places if you leave tips on a card to staff, the staff are charged an admin charge. I always leave tips in cash.

Card use benefits big business. I care about small independent shops and low paid staff in restaurants and cafes. Use cash please.

We can still ask for minimum transactions,

what we can no longer do is pass on the service charge to the customer if they want to pay by card anyway for a transaction smaller than our minimum card transaction (£5).

thus inconveniencing the customer and probably making them go elsewhere

It was designed to stop big business taking the piss with charges for using credit cards, but has, as always, had far greater knock on consequences for small retailers.

BeyondThePage Yes, it is still acceptable to me. They are welcome to refuse my business if they wish, or even, since I’ve been going there several times a week for a long time and we’re quite friendly now, kindly ask me not to pay contactless.

They have done neither of these things. If they asked me to pay by cash, I would try and find loose change, but until that day I will happily pay by the means they are allowing.

And I find it far easier to budget with cash. Small cardless payments are easily forgotten.

crunchymint Exactly how are they easily forgotten? They all come up on my statement, and since I use online banking I can check it whenever I want. This record allows me to easily see exactly where my money is going.

Unless you’re getting a paper trail for absolutely every cash purchase (and even then, you’d have to spend hours organising them in order to have any semblance of how that money was spent), you may know you have £50 of £250 left, but you have no idea exactly where and when that money is spent, which just allows for reckless spending and doesn’t allow you to control your money at all.

But I don't spend recklessly. It is not about that. It is knowing exactly how much cash you have to last you the week. You can see it.

crunchymint I didn’t say you spent recklessly, I say it allows you (the generic you) to spend recklessly because you have no easy record of where your money is going.

As I said, you may know you have £50 of £250 left, but you have no idea exactly where and when that money is spent.

It is not about that. It is knowing exactly how much cash you have to last you the week. You can see it.

Yes. I can do exactly that with my Monzo debit card account.

I can set budgeting targets for my spending - both overall and by category. I can track how much money I have left vs what I've already spent. - it even flags it in red / amber / green so I can see at a glance where I am vs my self imposed limit. It visualises my spending by category (as well as individual transactions) so I can see at a glance where my money is going. As soon as the card payment is authorised, I immediately get direct feedback about what I've just spent, with a notification that pops up on my phone - behaviourally it's very different to see that immediate feedback, than to shove a receipt into my purse

I'm not for one moment saying this is right for you, or for anyone else who prefers to use cash. What I am saying is that the problem you're articulating with using a card, saying that it's not possible to limit card spending as you can with cash, doesn't have to be the case. My Monzo debit card gives me significantly more control over and insight into my spending than cash does, and allows me to take a macro high level view of where my money goes, as well as detailed info about individual transactions

I never carry cash as I just don't need it for anything! As PP have said I tend to just fritter it away if it's in my purse. Only time I lift cash out is if I know I'm going to need it for something specific.

Actually further to my previous post, with Monzo budgeting limits you don't even have to actively open the app to monitor your spending: it will give you notifications to let you know how you're doing (Amber if you're spending too fast, red if you need to slow down)

It's giving you active feedback without you even having to log in

I carry cash, though don't use a large amount. I tend to get out £100 and it usually lasts a while. Mostly I probably use it to give cash to my (young) teens if they are going out and need to spend money without me. They don't have debit cards yet. Must sort that.

I prefer to pay cash for small amounts though. Firstly because otherwise I end up with ridiculously long and detailed bank statements and find it harder to check the larger transactions that I care about. Secondly because I know banks charge businesses for transactions by card and that doesn't seem fair to them. Shops often used to charge for small transactions by card (another reason to carry cash) but they are not allowed to do that anymore.

More than about £10-£20 I'd usually do by card (unless for teen). I also do lots of online transfers. No cheques!

I'm with crunchymint, cash helps me budget. £x goes in my wallet at the start of the week/month and I can easily see how much is left. I'm less concerned about exactly what I'm buying - I more or less know that anyway - than I am about whether or not I'm overspending in total.

Maybe some of the smartphone app-ey cards can do the same thing, but I'd have to put in the time and effort to get that set up. Cash does that inherently. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I say.